Off The Network: Disrupting The Digital World

Description

The digital world profoundly shapes how we work and consume and also how we play, socialize, create identities, and engage in politics and civic life. Indeed, we are so enmeshed in digital networks—from social media to cell phones—that it is hard to conceive of them from the outside or to imagine an alternative, let alone defy their seemingly inescapable power and logic. Yes, it is (sort of) possible to quit Facebook. But is it possible to disconnect from the digital network—and why might we want to? Off the Network is a fresh and authoritative examination of how the hidden logic of the Internet, social media, and the digital network is changing users’ understanding of the world—and why that should worry us. Ulises Ali Mejias also suggests how we might begin to rethink the logic of the network and question its ascendancy. Touted as consensual, inclusive, and pleasurable, the digital network is also, Mejias says, monopolizing and threatening in its capacity to determine, commodify, and commercialize so many aspects of our lives. He shows how the network broadens participation yet also exacerbates disparity—and how it excludes more of society than it includes. Uniquely, Mejias makes the case that it is not only necessary to challenge the privatized and commercialized modes of social and civic life offered by corporate-controlled spaces such as Facebook and Twitter, but that such confrontations can be mounted from both within and outside the network. The result is an uncompromising, sophisticated, and accessible critique of the digital world that increasingly dominates our lives. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 PART I. THINKING THE NETWORK......Page 20 1 The Network as Method for Organizing the World......Page 22 2 The Privatization of Social Life......Page 38 3 Computers as Socializing Tools......Page 56 4 Acting Inside and Outside the Network......Page 74 PART II. UNTHINKING THE NETWORK......Page 98 5 Strategies for Disrupting Networks......Page 100 6 Proximity and Conflict......Page 114 7 Collaboration and Freedom......Page 142 PART III. INTENSIFYING THE NETWORK......Page 162 8 The Limits of Liberation Technologies......Page 164 9 The Outside of Networks as a Method for Acting in the World......Page 172 Notes......Page 182 Bibliography......Page 196 C......Page 208 I......Page 209 N......Page 210 S......Page 211 Z......Page 212