Expose Thyself: On the Digitally Revealed Life

Eloquently formulated case against the blind acceptance of digital devices into our lives, and outsourcing ever more of what makes us human to algorithms. While we have always been talking of splintering of our attention, and the constant background anxiety resulting from frequent social media use, this article furthers the concerns in the direction of complex hard-to-understand algorithms mediating human communications using the signals harvested from sensors on smartphones.

I don't know when the time will come when we just say enough. No more wondrous technological conveniences that purport to make our lives simpler and easier with little thought or understanding of the great opportunity costs borne by the users. One terrific example is the plainly obvious alienating effect of this 21st century world of instant messaging from every corner of the globe, only to find the crushing effect it has on actual phone conversations even between close friends. The author nails this collective, global loss of empathy here with this example. Did any of the brilliant "technologists" envision this would happen? No. "Connect the world! Saturate it in social media. Good things ought to happen. Right?"

My fear is that that the widespread use of these attention hoarding devices and platforms is so oppressive that the thoughtfulness and awarness it takes to even formulate such questions will never come for the greater public. And so in this quasi-zombie state of tech consumption, harmful and poorly understood inventions will continue to reign supreme.

Dystopia? No, just look around you. The grip of tech companies (I work for one) is huge and I don't like the endless (and I hope involuntary) dehumanizing aspects of some of these technologies.

I cant be the only one who wants a world where people reach for their phones to talk to friends, or educate themselves about the world by reading books, instead of whatever poorly conceived alternatives we have today.