The Matrix: A Non-Fiction

-- By NathalieNoura - 06 Dec 2021

Inside the Matrix

Surveillance is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a close watch kept over someone or something (as by a detective). Traditionally, it was an invasion of privacy with the goal of exposing illicit activities.Surveillance was always associated with feelings of fear, anxiety, stress, and distrust. In the past century, a new form of surveillance has emerged.As Shoshana Zuboff described it, surveillance Capitalism depends on exploiting and controlling human nature. Companies like Google and Facebook extract information from us, and employ it to re-design our behavior with the goal of profit maximization. Quite simply, these companies are using technology not only to invade our privacy, but also to gradually, slightly, imperceptibly change our own behavior and perception. The technologies being used target our conscious and subconscious behavior and emotions. They tap into our desires and manipulate us into reacting the way they want us to. We have willfully surrendered our free will and agreed to be manipulated and engaged rather than actively making free undirected choices. Their goal is to automate us.Furthermore, surveillance capitalism is even being used by governments to control societies as a whole by affecting elections, suppressing opposition, and directing the population to adopt the government's way of thinking. An example of that would be Russia's use of Facebook and Twitter in 2018 by creating accounts and spreading polarizing misinformation, in order to manipulate Americans into casting their votes for Donald Trump. The Matrix is a science fiction movie about humans trapped in a simulation being controlled by machines, while other humans play with the switches. In the world of surveillance capitalism, is the Matrix still a science fiction?

Why do we "trust this device"?

It is no longer a secret that these tools are being used to surveil us and modify our behavior in order to maximize company profits. Yet somehow, even when Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before the Senate post the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook was still making billions.We do not fear this surveillance because the tools it uses are attractive objects, give us a false of control, and have embedded themselves into our existence. Fear is an emotional response largely motivated by what we perceive threatens our existence.The tools that are surveilling us are purposefully designed in a way that attracts us to it. They use the human innate attraction to beauty.The nature of tech today has made the user experience and user interface design more important than ever before. The products are far more elegant than what they used to be. They focus on colors, shapes, clicks, feel, and ease of use to make the product more appealing to the senses. We also perceive these elegant tools as harmless immovable objects, incapable of threatening our existence. Furthermore, we are told that these tools are there to serve us, giving us a sense of control. Meanwhile we have become preys to these tools which are designed to intentionally get us addicted and stripping us of actual control.Stanford University has a persuasive design lab which purpose is to teach the art of persuasion to its engineers and product designers including strategies such as placing ‘hot triggers’ in the path of motivated users. Such hot triggers would be colourful icons which glow with a light pulse when notifications remain unread, a smartwatch poking you ensuring you don't miss an update, or a "next episode" box on Netflix. Even though we know it's time to go to bed, we don't do turn off the tv and let the next episodes play automatically. The timer that they place before the next episode automatically plays is placed there to give us a sense of control. We, the users of email, social media, health apps, and smartphones are in a continuous state of distraction. Without knowing why, we find ourselves on social media and unintentionally jumping from one platform to the other. Finally, these tools are embedded into our daily lives and we have relied on them enormously that we are unable to envision an alternative. Google, Facebook, Apple, et al want to render the choices they want us to make easier, and the choices they don’t want us to make harder, or inexistent.These tools are the new norm and we do not fear what we know, or think we know. We genuinely that we cannot function, keep track of our events, find a date, find a job, have a social life, listen to music, stay healthy without these tools. We have thus surrendered into a fascist way of thinking where we don't question things if they are working.

Getting Out of the Matrix

We need to start by being aware of the reality of things. This attractive "object" has taken on the form of a physiological nervous system capable of creeping into our conscious and subconscious mind and manipulate our behavior. This "being" is a frightening threat to humans and our freedom of thought which should activate our defense mechanism and response. We must educate ourselves and those around us that there are other alternatives. We can use technology which allows us to live freely.Most importantly, we must educate the generations which are growing up believing that this physiological nervous system is their security blanket. We must teach them how to code and they fight it from the inside. Once we are alert and aware, we must take actual control by push backing instead of being pushed around. We refuse to be the submissive, passive, engaged victims of these tools. We can start by not swiping up for advertisements, turning off all notifications, not watching another episode, and gradually decreasing our interaction with it. Our time, attention, and freedom of choice are invaluable and we must protect them.Get out of the Matrix.

Some links would be helpful, so that the reader can follow your thought process while also being one click away from the sources that have shaped your thinking. That's what the Web excels at helping us to as we write, so we should take advantage of it.

Quite a few political and social movements could describe the essence of their urgency as "We need to start by being aware of the reality of things." (Not all of these movements are equally attractive, of course, because it depends on the reality of the "reality.") "We must teach," like "we must learn," often results in almost no learning. So the last paragraph here is really the space to be filled by the second draft, I think.

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