In an era of lemming-like clustering after our technologies, the snooping capacity of national authorities, and the dehumanizing manipulation inherent in the big data bromides of modern business, it will soon be that the next indulgence and luxury will be the capacity for people to enjoy the comfort of being off grid.
Digital detoxing is a placebo, with no authentic renegotiation of our relationship with technology. Little wonder that notwithstanding our ability to interact with thousands of people across the planet, our inability to connect meaningfully with the person next to us renders our sense of existence hollow and isolated.
The idea that information wants to be free is a trite mantra, suited only for endless RTs. Rather, the endless vista of the world’s knowledge is a mirage. We are the commodity being shuttled around the internet, like sheep being herded from point to point to serve commercial interests.
The fiction that we are free, unmediated in our awareness and potential, and visible as we choose to be, is one that will inevitably lead to a tiered system of privacy, where a true context of self-determination and autonomy will be a privilege or an indulgence desired by many, but available to few.