Psychological self-sovereignty predates the internet, which later amplified it

Evidence

The first modernity suppressed the growth and expression of self in favor of collective solutions, but by the second modernity, the self is all we have. The new sense of psychological sovereignty broke upon the world long before the internet appeared to amplify its claims. We learn through trial and error how to stitch together our lives. Nothing is given. Everything must be reviewed, renegotiated, and reconstructed on the terms that make sense to us: family, religion, sex, gender, morality, marriage, community, love, nature, social connections, political participation, career, food… — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 113

Categorization

• XREF: This claim (self-sovereignty predates the internet) will be load-bearing for the whole surveillance-capitalism argument; connects to chapter 1’s historical framing. — connects to: The Internet lets individuals bypass gatekeepers and create personalized symbolic environments; Modern individualism shifted from freedom-as-such to the value of being this specific irreplaceable self — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2844

Broader Connections

• The Internet lets individuals bypass gatekeepers and create personalized symbolic environments #corroborates (0.80)
• Modern individualism shifted from freedom-as-such to the value of being this specific irreplaceable self #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2844