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Joe Donatelli's avatar

Because none of the 8 can be monetized in an attention economy

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Eric Dane Walker's avatar

With due respect, I would like to suggest that injunctions to "get off your phone" and "find meaningful connection" are somewhat ineffectual.

That it is up to the individual to prevent her domination by devices distributed and marketed by gigantic, rapacious, autocratic, concentrated centers of undue economic power, or that it is up to the individual to deal with the consequences of such domination — such a notion is precisely the myth tech companies would prefer circulating around the culture. For it is a de-politicizing myth shifting the balance of blame and responsibility from them, and from the neoliberal policy-makers and financiers whose decisions in part established the very political-economic conditions that have made it profitable for tech companies to deliberately addict us.

Getting off your phone is a worthwhile goal, and offline connection is indeed a true good. But it is only under certain conditions that it becomes really possible to exercise personal agency, while under others, it becomes practically impossible. Don't just aim for finding connections; aim for the collective determination of political-economic arrangements that conduce one toward establishing local, community connections.

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