Digital connection is a means to commercial ends, not intrinsically pro-social

Evidence

Surveillance capitalism runs contrary to the early digital dream, consigning the Aware Home to ancient history. Instead, it strips away the illusion that the networked form has some kind of indigenous moral content, that being “connected” is somehow intrinsically pro-social, innately inclusive, or naturally tending toward the democratization of knowledge. Digital connection is now a means to others’ commercial ends. At its core, surveillance capitalism is parasitic and self-referential. It revives Karl Marx’s old image of capitalism as a vampire that feeds on labor, but with an unexpected turn. Instead of labor, surveillance capitalism feeds on every aspect of every human’s experience. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 38

Categorization

• XREF: Revives Marx’s vampire-of-capital metaphor but redirects it from labor to experience; connects to my past reading on industrial capitalism’s self-reflexive drives. — connects to: Datafied connection is sold as solidarity while actually substituting platform-mediated service — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 649; Technology increases rather than eliminates the need for trust — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 130; Digital computing boosted circulation and exchange, not productive output. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 76 (+3 more)
• SEED: Angle: the ‘vampire’ of surveillance capitalism feeds on experience rather than labor — a redefinition of what exploitation means in the digital economy.

Broader Connections

• Digital capitalism profits from unpaid pleasurable user activity. #expands (0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 197
• Digital computing boosted circulation and exchange, not productive output. #corroborates (0.80) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 76
• Value under digital capitalism rests on appearing, not possessing. #expands (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 204
• The digital economy functions as legitimating hegemonic ideology for capitalism #expands (0.80) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 16
• Technology increases rather than eliminates the need for trust #expands (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 130