Surveillance capital’s core goal is keeping users locked to the social mirror
Evidence
Innocent hangouts and conversations are embedded in a behavioral engineering project of planetary scope and ambition that is institutionalized in Big Other’s architectures of ubiquitous monitoring, analysis, and control. In their encounter with the self-other balance, teenagers step onto a playing field already tilted by surveillance capital to tip them into the social mirror and keep them fixed on its reflections. Everything depends upon feeding the algorithms that can effectively and precisely bite on him and bite on her and not let go. All those outlays of genius and money are devoted to this one goal of keeping users, especially young users, plastered to the social mirror like bugs on the windshield. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1484
Categorization
- XREF: ‘Social mirror’ concept ties to earlier chapters on Big Other and behavioral modification; parallels McLuhan-style mediation of self. — connects to: Surveillance capital’s tuning society replaces governance and politics with social pressure — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1496; Surveillance capitalists deliberately conceal how their platforms monetize user behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1411; Surveillance capitalists self-authorize the right to modify user behavior for profit — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 933 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Surveillance capital’s tuning society replaces governance and politics with social pressure
#expands(0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1496 - Surveillance capitalism exploits the human hunger for recognition
#expands(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 797 - Surveillance capitalists deliberately conceal how their platforms monetize user behavior
#expands(0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1411 - Surveillance capitalists self-authorize the right to modify user behavior for profit
#expands(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 933 - Surveillance capitalism aims to author people rather than destroy them
#expands(0.74) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1062