We see culture and selfhood as shaped by market forces, technology constraints, business decisions, and arbitrary software designs. No form of meaning stands apart from the technopoly and remains relevant; there is no evidence of meaning beyond those actions which can be turned into apps or pages and made to generate profit.
In the democratic capitalist technopoly, therefore, meaning is defined by forces that take no note of meaning-in-itself, reject as irrelevant everything that cannot be made into discrete, monetizable, digital units. Technology requires user actions; leisure-as-repose cannot be initiated by a click, shared, or sold. Neither, for that matter, can love, wisdom, or joy.
Mills Baker on Forgotten Leisure. This quote is much the flip-side of this Craig Mod quote I posted today, which I also believe is true and good, in its own way.
As online life takes over for real life, Google, Facebook, and other companies are fighting to turn every aspect of your existing physical life into an exploitable online interaction. I struggle with this. Mills provides a counter-balance while I read Grouped by Paul Adams.