Routine bodily self-monitoring has become a competitive, profit-generating infrastructure
Evidence
The simple, daily act that every individual body does of monitoring whether it has drunk enough water has suddenly become something that happens in a competitive social space. The human body has been reworked into something that requires a distant infrastructure, from which, incidentally, profit can be made. In Rooney’s own words, “I have contracted out one of the essential functions of my body to a piece of software.” But this is just one small example of something much bigger: the systematic attempt to turn all human lives and relations into inputs for the generation of profit. Human experience, potentially every layer and aspect of it, is becoming the target of profitable extraction. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 25
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces the ‘colonization by data’ thesis via a concrete lived example, then names the condition.
- XREF: connects to: Datafied systems may replace bodily self-knowledge with calibrated external monitoring. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 467; External surveillance becomes internalized as self-imposed bodily discipline — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 512; Total measurement is sold through the lure of seamless personal convenience — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1367 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Datafied systems may replace bodily self-knowledge with calibrated external monitoring.
#expands(0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 467 - Wearable device growth is driven primarily by surveillance revenue potential
#corroborates(0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 770 - External surveillance becomes internalized as self-imposed bodily discipline
#expands(0.80) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 512 - Surveillance capital now extracts surplus from inner bodily and emotional signals.
#expands(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 906 - Attention harvesting grows more sensitive the closer devices get to the body
#expands(0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1131 - Instrumentarian power arises from converging surveillance capabilities and monetized behavioral surplus
#corroborates(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1214 - Total measurement is sold through the lure of seamless personal convenience
#corroborates(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1367 - Surveillance is a foundational mechanism in converting investment into profit.
#expands(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 162 - Continuous classroom monitoring is marketed as an empowering selling point
#exemplifies(0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 535 - Automated surveillance threatens the open-ended self-transformative capacity that defines selfhood
#qualifies(0.70) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 489