Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity
What can anthropology contribute to the current debates about the negative effects of social media on people? Starting from a critique of anthropological work that sees human subjectivity and culture as ontologically unaffected by social media use, I propose that human engagement with these digital...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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CLUEB
2022-01-01
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| Series: | EtnoAntropologia |
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| Online Access: | https://rivisteclueb.it/index.php/etnoantropologia/article/view/381 |
| _version_ | 1811165536510279680 |
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| author | Vito Laterza |
| author_facet | Vito Laterza |
| author_sort | Vito Laterza |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
What can anthropology contribute to the current debates about the negative effects of social media on people? Starting from a critique of anthropological work that sees human subjectivity and culture as ontologically unaffected by social media use, I propose that human engagement with these digital technologies produces significant ontological transformations that deserve more attention. I develop my analysis in dialogue with Boellstorff’s ontology of the digital, Nardi’s theorisation of virtuality and affordances, and Zuboff’s formulation of surveillance capitalism, and I use empirical illustrations from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal to highlight key theoretical junctures. My main contribution is an outline of an anthropological theory of the dialectic between what I call analogue humanity and digital humanity. The two are mutually constituted but ontologically distinct. In the current political economy of digitalisation, tech companies are driving a process of increasing substitution of analogue humanity and forms of life with digital ones, as part of their quest for accurate prediction and social engineering of all aspects of human behaviour. While an anti-technology stance is neither practicable nor desirable, anthropologists need to think about how analogue humanity can be preserved and nurtured so that it can avoid ontological extinction.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T15:38:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-367b81dfefca4ce18f02506a210f86c6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2284-0176 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T15:38:36Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | CLUEB |
| record_format | Article |
| series | EtnoAntropologia |
| spelling | doaj.art-367b81dfefca4ce18f02506a210f86c62023-02-12T19:08:03ZengCLUEBEtnoAntropologia2284-01762022-01-0192Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanityVito Laterza0Department of Global Development and Planning & Centre for Digital Transformation (CeDiT), University of Agder (Norway); Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT), University of Johannesburg (South Africa). What can anthropology contribute to the current debates about the negative effects of social media on people? Starting from a critique of anthropological work that sees human subjectivity and culture as ontologically unaffected by social media use, I propose that human engagement with these digital technologies produces significant ontological transformations that deserve more attention. I develop my analysis in dialogue with Boellstorff’s ontology of the digital, Nardi’s theorisation of virtuality and affordances, and Zuboff’s formulation of surveillance capitalism, and I use empirical illustrations from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal to highlight key theoretical junctures. My main contribution is an outline of an anthropological theory of the dialectic between what I call analogue humanity and digital humanity. The two are mutually constituted but ontologically distinct. In the current political economy of digitalisation, tech companies are driving a process of increasing substitution of analogue humanity and forms of life with digital ones, as part of their quest for accurate prediction and social engineering of all aspects of human behaviour. While an anti-technology stance is neither practicable nor desirable, anthropologists need to think about how analogue humanity can be preserved and nurtured so that it can avoid ontological extinction. https://rivisteclueb.it/index.php/etnoantropologia/article/view/381Digitalisationdigital anthropologysubjectivityhumanityCambridge Analytica |
| spellingShingle | Vito Laterza Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity EtnoAntropologia Digitalisation digital anthropology subjectivity humanity Cambridge Analytica |
| title | Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity |
| title_full | Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity |
| title_fullStr | Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity |
| title_short | Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism: Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity |
| title_sort | human technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital humanity |
| topic | Digitalisation digital anthropology subjectivity humanity Cambridge Analytica |
| url | https://rivisteclueb.it/index.php/etnoantropologia/article/view/381 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vitolaterza humantechnologyrelationsinanageofsurveillancecapitalismtowardsananthropologicaltheoryofthedialecticbetweenanalogueanddigitalhumanity |