The basic form of digital communication is command inducing chronic lag-anxiety

Evidence

I think one of the key elements of digital technology is this sense of being slightly late all the time. Let’s think about social media like Twitter: you’re in a perennial state of reactivity, by the very fact you’re there, you’re always late, and therefore you’re always in a state of slight and intense anxiety. I think we kind of normalised this as part of our nervous system, where even if something is perceived as instantaneous, it isn’t quite. And this is part of a general sense of lack, of things lagging behind, which is a feature of the digital as such. Capitalist cyberspace demands a constant dispersion of attention, you’re always solicited to respond and to react, so it’s very difficult to be absorbed in anything. Also, the basic form of digital communication is command: every time you pick up your smartphone, you’ve been told to do things. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2300

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the fragment-absorption argument in ch105-that-wasted-time chapter material on how cyberspatial alerts fragment attention into de-activating anxiety.
• XREF: connects to: Digital communication compulsion operates as death drive with banal content — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1499; Chronic interest in communication signals a derangement of its models — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 222; Discipline operates through uninterpreted signals demanding automatic response — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 250

Broader Connections

• Chronic interest in communication signals a derangement of its models #expands (0.80) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 222
• Discipline operates through uninterpreted signals demanding automatic response #corroborates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 250