Discretion and concealment constitute meaningful resistance to attention capitalism

Evidence

It then becomes perfectly justifiable to make discretion into a fundamental principle of resistance to the development of attention capitalism. Beyond the sobering observation that, ‘despite all the efforts of those who profit from this system, the people who are addicted to the image and to getting themselves noticed at any cost are largely in a minority’, Pierre Zaoui remarks in a recent book that ‘learning to leave the order of self-exhibition and generalized surveillance is already to engage in a certain form of dissidence. More generally, any serious or modest resistance will always have started with the acceptance of a certain concealment, which is to say, with the art of keeping a low profile and not getting yourself noticed, the art of discretion.’ — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 143

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: ‘the art of disappearing’ as an anti-surveillance practice — counterintuitive resistance through concealment rather than visibility.
• XREF: Rebuts the visibility-mandate of platform culture the reader studies; parallels offline prudence traditions and surveillance-resistance literature. — connects to: Politically resisting attention capitalism requires sabotaging ratings systems — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 167; Resistance to surveillance capitalism requires deliberately creating friction against its smooth flows — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1657; Capitalism co-opts opposition and must be escaped rather than confronted — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media: How Wall Street…, 468 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Resistance to surveillance capitalism requires deliberately creating friction against its smooth flows #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1657
• Politically resisting attention capitalism requires sabotaging ratings systems #complicates (0.82) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 167
• Capitalism co-opts opposition and must be escaped rather than confronted #expands (0.75) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 468