Taylor Dotson
Aug 25, 2017 · 1 min read

Although I’m in total agreement with your argument that simply pathologizing technology usage is unhelpful, I’m worried that your perspective misses some of the forest for the trees. We’re not simply institutionalized by the technologies that are immediately present in our lives and in our pockets but by the broader sociotechnical systems that can make the use of those technologies feel obligatory. To blame gadgets themselves would be like Red in the Shawshank Redemption literally believing that was the walls themselves that institutionalized him (rather than the broader system of incarceration-based justice acting through those walls). That forgoing a smartphone almost inexorably entails social isolation for many of us should alert us to facets of our institutionalization that would not be altered by simply trading for-profit “walls” for non-profit ones.

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    Taylor Dotson

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    Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies at New Mexico Tech.