Big Brother-era uncertainty is inverted into certainty that breeds complacent nonchalance
Evidence
Similarly, obedience to authority in data colonialism is promoted through a quasi-paranoid self-monitoring feeling that “we live in public” but that we need not worry too much about it because everyone else is also being watched. We need not worry, that is, as long as we have “done nothing wrong.” If the panopticon effect relied on our inability to tell exactly when we were being watched, so that we behaved all the time as though we were, the “inverse panopticon effect” of pervasive data surveillance relies on us knowing that we are being watched all the time but lapsing into behaving as though we are not, thus naturalizing acceptance of a world in which surveillance and continuous tracking operate unnoted in the background. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 323
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces and defines the ‘inverse panopticon effect’ as a distinct mechanism from Foucault’s panopticon.
- XREF: Maps directly to the concept of data colonialism versus the attention/surveillance schools this reader is comparing; also evokes Foucault’s panopticism. — connects to: Speculation now means endorsing uncertainty as a tactic for social survival — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 20; Trust reduces complexity by substituting inner certainty for external certainty — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154; The speculative subject accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 25 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Speculation now means endorsing uncertainty as a tactic for social survival
#qualifies(0.85) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 20 - The speculative subject accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty
#contradicts(0.85) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 25 - Trust reduces complexity by substituting inner certainty for external certainty
#contradicts(0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154 - Speculative communities embrace uncertainty through strategic unknowing rather than anticipation or control
#qualifies(0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 329