The Invisible Costs & Inconvenient Truths of Living Online

Thoughts about the downsides of digital technology.

St. Zuckerberg?

To state the obvious: Over the last thirty(ish) years our lives have become completely enmeshed in digital technology.

The urgency, feeling of inevitability, obvious convenience and productivity benefits of the digital transformation of society has served as the last words in most public discussions about the consequences and impacts of digitalization. We have not been forbidden from talking about the potentially negative impacts, but we have simply lacked the vocabulary and proper data to make a compelling case against the one-sided, positive growth story of the internet.

This post concerns some of the invisible costs and inconvenient truths related to social media, smartphones, and now AI chatbots and image/video generators. By no means all of them, but a few. The bottom line is that the digital transformation of society has led to economic growth across the line, but complicated our relationships with each other and with culture.

We will take a look at:
- How technology dependency leads to technology addiction
- The dating app paradox that keeps people single
- How algorithmic control reverse-engineers the social conditioning of children
- The rabbit holes that radicalize young men and women