A Faceless Company Knows Me Better Than My Own Mother
By: Alex Goik
Tags: Technology, Social Media, Phone, Addiction, Internet

A Faceless Company Knows Me Better Than My Own Mother

I’ve been made to adore my phone over any lover

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

Scrolling mindlessly on my device for the fifth time today. Primed for the little red notification that will send dopamine bliss my way.

Faces of people I hardly know pass by in a pixelated blur. Alleged social connection, but within my beating chest no feelings stir.

On the street and crowded trains, heads absorbed in the blue light of LSD screen. But who am I to judge as just another participant among this sad and sorry scene?

Purchase and consume, be just like the rest. Maintain that online presence, rack up the likes, while inside you scream for redress.

Growing up in a world of deepening connection. Little did we know the digital realm possessed a dark reflection.

They say human life is priceless and not worth its weight in gold. But everything about us is now recorded, bartered and sold.

Profiters disguised as our timely saviours, have the keys to our very thoughts and behaviours.

Experiences, personalities, and now our moment by moment emotions. All abstracted and captured with zero commotion.

Human biology dissected and put on sale. A hundred engineers versus one primate, place your bets on who will prevail.

Technologies and systems designed to eliminate the decisions people make. Nudged, herded, and conditioned, is it our very humanity that we must forsake?

The dystopia painted by Orwell, blinded us to a surveillance more interested in the sell.

Steve Job’s wondrous bicycle has been attached to a hamster wheel. Peddling is all we know and resistance is futile — or so many feel.

When innovation and progress have been claimed by the dollar. What is worth fighting for and why should we bother?

Neoliberalism insists it’s all about choice, but it’s never granted true freedom a platform or a voice.

Seduced by hallowed words of democracy. “Freedom, autonomy, fairness” sacred virtues turned shallow hypocrisy.

From citizen, to consumer, now reduced to an addict. What comes next only Silicon Valley’s algorithms can predict.

We’re told the body is sacred, but our minds have long been co-opted. How many of your decisions were those a machine presented, and you adopted?

Let an artificial program shape your every want, need and desire. Spend and consume mindlessly to please our capitalist messiah.

Consciousness subdued and human weakness exploited. The social fabric begins to tear apart, civilisation disjointed.

Needless to say, the trajectory we are on is foreboding and looking rather stark. Extricating ourselves from this drama won’t be a simple walk in the park.

What once sounded like conspiracy has been revealed as unfortunate fact. And the data centres powering this business model will continue to whir unless collectively we act.

People under the banner of business own a crystal ball that can predict our every movement. This might sound like a stupid question — but I thought we were designing technology for human improvement?

Purposefully manipulating human shortcomings harms us all. Nearing the sun and heating up, need I tell you of Icarus and his fall?

I won’t insist you stage small acts of resistance. Delete social media, lock away the phone, ignore these trends and their persistence.

True change begins with awareness. Honest conversation, here lies the path to justice and fairness.

Collective human consciousness awakening to its own imprisonment. A future lies beyond this, if we have but the courage to envisage it.

Alex Trauth-Goik is a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong, Australia, whose research focuses on attitudes towards surveillance across cultures. He strives to offer fresh perspectives on foreign affairs, tech and China (coupled with the odd analysis of human nature).