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> | -- ClaireCaton - 08 Dec 2020 (Second Draft) |
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< | The New Freedom |
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> | The New Freedom |
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< | Personal data collection and behavior tracking seem to be well rooted in our Internet society, to the point that it undermines our freedom. But there are people who already have a different sense of what freedom means. That is why they are not afraid and do not feel anxious about the invasion of Internet into their privacy.
I think only part of the human population is aware of the pernicious link between technology and freedom. Just like in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: Winston Smith is the only one to be aware of the manipulation of the Party but people around him mostly have no political consciousness. The majority seems politically apathetic. In our society, maybe the majority indulges in the current world. People are not interested in fighting against something that they do not feel directly violates their well-being. There is a reluctance to question oneself too much. As long as all is well, as in the material comfort is satisfied, in one’s short human life, there is not really time to think about future generations or even the current state of society. There are those who feels that something is wrong but cannot name the problem, but are however trying hard to change things and persuade others that something is wrong. Then, there are those who have a slight and occasional feeling that something is wrong but will not investigate further because their present personal sphere is satisfying. Finally there are those who do not sense anything wrong in the evolution of technology and its impact on the society. |
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> | I think only part of the human population is aware of the pernicious link between technology and freedom. Just like in George Orwell’s 1984: Winston Smith is the only one aware of the manipulation of the Party but people around him mostly have no political consciousness. The majority seems politically apathetic. But even those who are aware don’t seem to do much about it. In our society, maybe the majority indulges in the current world. People are not interested in fighting against something that does not directly violate their well-being. There is a reluctance to question oneself too much. As long as the material comfort is satisfied, there is not really time to think about future generations or even the current state of society. |
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< | -- By ClaireCaton - 09 Oct 2020 |
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> | We are now contending with a culture of convenience, and freedom is maybe no longer a priority. People don't seem to think the same way anymore. Their ability to reason and self-govern are likely decreasing, and their involvement in politics too. The demos is becoming reluctant to participate in the kratos. |
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> | Internet addiction has come to directly affect some people’s well-being and even modify their physiology (I). But convenience seems to outweigh this discomfort and this contributes to the decline of freedom (II). |
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< | Section I : The New Meaning of Freedom |
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< | The evolving Internet society shapes the new physiology of human beings who carry within them a new definition of freedom. |
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> | -- By ClaireCaton - Second Draft 7 Dec 2020 |
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< | Subsection A : The Ability to Choose Means Freedom |
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< | When asked to define freedom, I have often heard people use the words democracy, free will, choice, rights, or emancipation. The ability to choose seems to exclude the possibility of being manipulated. Yet, people believe that they have the right to choose whether to be a user of any technology.
In class, it has been said that “every time it feels like there is no other choice, the existent power wins”. But what if it never really feels like there is no other choice? Just like people who are addicted to nicotine or other substance, they usually don’t acknowledge their addiction to something. They are deeply convinced that they can stop when they want to and that it only depends on their will power. People don’t feel unfree or manipulated because they believe, or try so hard that they convince themselves, that they have the choice to use or not to use technology, and therefore they are free. |
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> | Section I : Internet Addiction And Transformative Power of Technology |
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> | Some people started contemplating that technology is overriding them or making them addicted (A). In the meantime, technology has already transformed human physiology (B). |
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< | Subsection B : The Convenience and Uninterrupted Connection Entail Freedom |
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> | Subsection A : Internet Addiction |
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< | People not only believe that they can choose to use technology, but also that uninterrupted access and connection to the world is part of a freedom-tinted lifestyle.
For some people, freedom translates into the possibility to have continuous access to the Internet, because it means accessing parts of the world they could not have seen through any other channel. Being able to travel far through a computer or telephone screen might as well provide a sense of freedom.
Moreover, the convenience of having everything in no time has shaped a new human being. The near-universal access to smartphones in China and the food delivery services such as Eleme allow people to have every kind of dishes delivered to their home within 30 minutes. This feature of technology that provides uninterrupted convenience and fulfills the smallest needs make people associate the possession of electronic devices to freedom. |
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> | Addiction can be defined as an inability to stop or regulate the consumption of an activity or substance, even though it is causing psychological and physical harm. One is addicted to something if he or she feels the need to consume the thing regularly.1 More specifically, “Internet addiction” is commonly used to refer to “excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges or behaviors regarding computer use and Internet access that lead to impairment or distress”.2 Other terms used to describe the phenomena include “technology addiction,” and “Internet dependency.” |
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> | Some people became aware of their inability to relinquish convenient electronic tools, hence the emergence of smartphone applications to substitute will power, or rather the absence of will power, and allow them to block distracting websites on their smartphones. Moreover, as early as in 2006, the first inpatient center to treat Internet addiction opened in Beijing, China.4 Thus showing that some felt the need to be treated for their inability to regulate their Internet usage. |
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< | Section II : Human Nature Versus Transformative Power of Technology |
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< | Humans are so confident that they hardly contemplate technology overriding them or making them addicted. In the meantime, technology has already transformed human nature. |
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> | Subsection B : The New Human Physiology |
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< | Subsection A : Human Self-Confidence |
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> | As Marx said in Capital, "in changing the technical world, Man changes his own nature." Society, technology and human behavior are tightly intertwined. Habits are powerful, just as technology is. When investigators from the American Psychiatric Association compared brain scans of individuals who satisfy the criteria for Internet addiction against those who don’t, they observed differences. Structurally, addicted individuals’ brains look different. Functionally, addicted individuals’ brains act differently. The brains of the identified Internet addicts within several studies resembled those of substance abusers and pathological gamblers. |
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< | Some people became aware of their inability to relinquish convenient electronic tools, hence the emergence of smartphone applications to substitute will power, or rather the absence of will power, and allow them to block distracting websites on their smartphones. They think they are smart enough to create applications to allow them escape their technology addiction. However, this is not enough to make them think that they are enslaved by technology.
They still feel free because they believe to be in control of their devices. They do not believe that technology can control them. Humans are convinced that they are too smart to be dominated by technology. The creator of Ava in the movie Ex Machina keeps the robot locked in a cell: humans are free and controlling their creations. The belief that human intelligence surpasses artificial intelligence is deeply rooted in humans. |
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> | Moreover, some studies have found gray matter density in parts of the brain to be significantly lower in youths addicted to the Internet than in non-addicts.3 The gray matter areas are often associated with executive functioning, such as planning, decision making, and impulse control. |
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> | New habits of mind seem to have corrupted the humans. How can this be linked to the notion of freedom? |
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< | Subsection B : “In Changing The Technical World, Man Changes His Own Nature” |
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< | A further degree of influence of technology on human nature is that human beings will be insensitive to the notion of freedom itself. As Marx said in Capital, "in changing the technical world, Man changes his own nature." Society and technology and human behavior are tightly intertwined. Habits are powerful, just as technology is.
Maybe the original freedom of men has already been abandoned by society. New habits of mind have corrupted the humans. People do not sense any explicit requirement to be submissive or to obey, yet they are being submissive, because their nature is altered. They have become insensitive to what was once perceived as freedom of the free men. The idea of voluntary servitude in The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude might be relevant to our current society.
The human nature is such that we tend to prioritize individual well-being over collective happiness. Is this the result of the power of technology over human nature? |
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> | Section II : The Decline of Freedom for the Benefit of Convenience |
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This draft is coherent and thoughtful. If you read it with an editorial eye, however, you will see many sentences that are crucial to the flow of the argument that are sustained by no more than mere assertion. There are, in general, few facts here. The metaphor of "addiction" is used at several critical junctures, but there's no definition of addiction or reference to fact that would justify the high reliance and hard work the metaphor is made to do. |
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> | Convenience seems to outweigh this conscious addiction (A) and this contributes to the dissolution of freedom through decline of self-government (B). |
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< | "Choice" is a slippery, non-specific concept. That's why Google wants all the antitrust and competition regulators of the world to remember that "competition is just a click away." That's why having 25 brands of breakfast cereal in the supermarket but no chance to join a labor union isn't necessarily any evidence of a free society. It's why Voltaire jokes that the English are a curious nation, with 100 religions and only one sauce. |
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> | Subsection A : The Convenience of Uninterrupted Connection |
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< | So not only is it likely that people think to much about choice and too little about self-government, but also that your draft does as well. What happens if your thoughtfulness is directed not to metaphors of choice and addiction but to the alternate concepts of self-government and the decline of freedom?
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> | People tend to, especially in countries with highly individualistic cultures, prioritize individual well-being over collective happiness and they value immediate pleasures. The majority is likely not ready to live without uninterrupted connection to the Internet: the need for convenience exceeds the need to remediate the addiction. |
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> | During an interview, Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner of competition, talked about the way we have shifted to valuing convenience as the ultimate good over what is actually good for us.5 Every one of these tasks that we once did but now rely on a piece of technology for convenience is making us feel that we cannot live without the particular technology.
Dependence on technology in performing daily tasks is worrying, but less than losing independent thinking. It seems that society is embracing technology without fully understanding the long-term ramifications of this decision. This feature of technology that provides uninterrupted connection and convenience and fulfills the smallest needs make people lose their autonomy.
Subsection B : Self-government and the Decline of Freedom
Autonomy is an individual's capacity for self-determination or self-governance. When independence in one's thoughts or actions is undermined by the intervention of an authority which we cannot change and over which we have no control, our freedom is affected.
If convenience and habits lead to reflexes, they also entail decrease of reasoning, reflection, and individual deliberation. All of us like to believe that our actions are the result of our own free will, and we are reluctant to admit that much of what we do is the result of conditioned reflexes or unconscious compulsions rationalized by ex post facto intellectualizations.
The power of technology over human nature suggests that people no longer have patience for what it takes to participate in politics. Their present emphasis on need of instantaneity may make them increasingly consider the political process to be inferior to the essential things in life. But in doing so, it undermines participation in the act of self-government.
Conclusion
Kevin Roose wrote, in an article titled “How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain,” “unlike alcohol or opioids, phones aren’t an addictive substance so much as a species-level environmental shock.”6
Self-government ultimately requires dedication to an ongoing activity in which citizens make collective decisions in perpetuity. The evolving Internet society is shaping the new physiology of human beings who will need to bear the erosion of their freedom caused by their own altered physiology.
1. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323465
2. Shaw, M., & Black, D. W. (2008). Internet addiction: Definition, assessment, epidemiology and clinical management. CNS Drugs, 22(5), 353–365.
3.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nan_Zhou19/publication/325207771_Internet_addiction_problematic_internet_use_nonproblematic_Internet_use_among_Chinese_adolescents_Individual_parental_peer_and_sociodemographic_correlates/links/5b024dd2a6fdccf9e4f66483/Internet-addiction-problematic-internet-use-nonproblematic-Internet-use-among-Chinese-adolescents-Individual-parental-peer-and-sociodemographic-correlates.pdf
4. http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1874380,00.html
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/opinion/tech-addiction-phone-screens.html
6. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/business/cell-phone-addiction.html |
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