This is the part which resonated with myself:

> Instead one chooses a destination and walks toward it. Along the way the route is commodified. Restaurants suggested instead of found. Parks digitally delineated instead of outlined by the contours of our promenades. >

In the UK increasingly one needs a credit/debit card, or a phone capable of NFC payments, to actually pay for things. The big-brand shops have most their self-checkouts as card-only & many shops are increasingly refusing cash. (There really ought to be a law mandating that all physical stores must accept legal tender as a condition of trade - else what is the point in cash?)

The parks and pavements here are increasingly blighted by bright digital advertising. Railway tickets are becoming harder to get in a non-digital form, for one example of the increasing dependence on phones.

Point is, the need for a phone, and a debit/credit card to go to a cafe, to take a train, etc, does remove the spontaneity and an element of joy from the experience. Being forced to carry a google or apple tracking device, or even 'just' a VISA/Mastercard makes me feel tethered to the 'capitalist' system - as this article puts it; but whatever you call it, capitalism or technocracy, the author is right.