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Convenience
-- By MicahMekbib - 20 Feb 2025
Convenience
Sometimes, I find it comforting to go online and read opinions on Twitter because it “inspires” my perspective. If I was honest with myself, I would say I like it because then I don’t have to think of my own opinions and convictions. I can be made up of the hundreds of tweets I read weekly. Though disingenuous, life is a bit more convenient this way.
Our Shared Internet Experience
The rise of the Internet created an unparalleled avenue for self-determination–never before could one so easily control what, from whom, and when they consumed information. Private technology companies–Big Tech–were angelic, creative producers of avenues for mass global communication that made information circulation instantaneous and highly accessible. This isn’t just wishful thinking–Google’s mission in 1998 was simply to organize the world’s information in an accessible way. And then they realized they could manipulate the range of content and digital landscape that each Internet user experiences.
In today’s age, all social media platforms rely on algorithms that feed users whatever they are designed to. Big Tech utilizes surveillance to extract behavioral data and support such algorithms. When private companies have control over what and how information is disseminated, the practice of shaping information environments exacerbates our constant epistemic battle by endangering the procurement of knowledge and promoting disinformation. How much of your Internet exploration is powered by your free will, and how much of it is that of those above you? Surveillance gnaws at our free will by exploiting one of the desires we are most susceptible to compromising our moral values for: convenience. Surveillance nourishes our desire for convenience by (1) commodifying online users’ experiences, and (2) manipulating users’ information context to erode their right to self-determination.
Scroll, Buy, Don't Think, Repeat
At its best, Internet surveillance simply affects our consumerism (of course, “at best” is a euphemism–these implications are still worrisome). You get bombarded with the same advertisements enough and you begin to fall for them. TikTok? Shop? Really? Heatless curls, ooouu the newest Stanley cup to add to my collection!, haul after haul after haul, 46,000 people killed in Palestine but wait I just found the BEST DUPE EVER!!1111! on Amazon (link to my storefront!), these are the best makeup products to achieve the Sofia Richie clean girl aesthetic, scroll some more, scroll some more, don’t be shy just scroll some more -
Are you feeling doomed yet? Your average screen time this week was 13 hours. If it’s any relief–it’s not completely your fault.
Decades in, Big Tech companies have transformed into pioneers of surveillance capitalism, a burgeoning economic market that is founded upon the extraction of behavioral data in the digital world. Their algorithms have perfected systems to store user data, apply it to predict users' future behaviors, and inform their marketing. This sort of capitalism relies on the private expropriation of the human production of online activity. It becomes profitable when Big Tech sells raw data collected from Internet activity on their platforms to other companies, who subsequently use such data to make profitable marketing decisions. An algorithm will latch onto any post you linger on for a few extra seconds and cater to it. It will fixate on the desires you may not even realize you are displaying and gnaw gnaw gnaw at you until you acquiesce.
If that sounds scary to you, that's probably a good sign. It's quite easy to submit your will to the ease of the Internet providing you with exactly the products you were just thinking of the other day.
Engineering Identities
At its worst, surveillance is an attack on our unique identities and self-determination. In the same way that Big Tech commodifies behavioral data for capitalist purposes, Big Tech uses behavioral data to manipulate information context online, strangling users’ self-determination and individual autonomy. Social media platforms will prioritize posts based on users’ engagement with them, amplifying content that they find already popular and influential. This primarily has two effects.
The first is driving people further away from each other. If a company wants to increase polarization, it will push extreme political viewpoints that will divide people. Polarization online has increased in recent years, creating divisions between people that differ in genders, social class, racial group, and education level. This radical division clouds our prioritizations. Disinformation is engineered to divide us so we cannot unite to fight true enemies of fascism, dictatorship, and our exploitation that is used to preserve the top 1%.
The second effect is the creation of echo chambers where users primarily see content aligning with already existing views. As users continue to interact the most with posts that align with their existing interests, they become highly susceptible to further radicalization towards their own thoughts. Our thoughts, positive or negative, are reinforced with more content that Big Tech knows we want to hear. While this may seem innocent–here we are shaping our own Internet experiences!--this information environment has the dangerous effect of disabling healthy discourse that promotes character development and social progression.
In a world where the Internet breeds disinformation, critical thinking and discernment are of the utmost importance. This sort of cognitive isolation can create groupthink that prevents critical thinking. How do you know you’re making the right decision if you only see one?
Engineering Identities
In the Internet age, life as we know it is–well, should be–a persistent fight against allowing algorithms to influence our everyday lives. The dynamics of law school mirror those discussed above about our online experience. So how do we resist? How do we distill the humming of everything around us to focus on curating our own law school experience?
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