The costs of connection : how data is colonizing human life and appropriating it for capitalism

Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection un...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Couldry, Nick, Mejias, Ulises A
Format: eBook Book
Language:English
Published: Stanford Stanford University Press 2019
Edition:1
Series:Culture and economic life
Subjects:
autonomy
Capitalism
Capitalism > Social aspects
colonialism
connection
data
decoloniality
Electronic data processing
Electronic data processing > Social aspects
extraction
Information technology
Information technology > Social aspects
Internet
Internet > Social aspects
postcolonialism
SOCIAL SCIENCE
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
society
colonialism
autonomy
society
data
capitalism
connection
decoloniality
extraction
postcolonialism
internet
ISBN:9781503609747, 150360974X, 1503609758, 9781503609754, 9781503603660, 1503603660
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives—our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally—and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-305) and index
ISBN:9781503609747
150360974X
1503609758
9781503609754
9781503603660
1503603660
DOI:10.1515/9781503609754