Portfolio #4: Platforms, Algorithms, and Surveillance Capitalism
Reflecting on this week’s readings and video, most of them have shed light on the fact that we do not have as much freedom or control as we think we do when using digital media or social media. Our data is constantly being collected to be profited off of and used by algorithms to learn more about us. They also bring attention to how digital media and the technologies that have become integrated in our lives negatively affect a lot more aspects of our society than we may realize. Not only are people being exploited for their data as a way for large companies to profit, but also for the labor that contributes to creating different technologies. I found ‘The Anatomy of an AI System’ and ‘In The Age of AI’ particularly interesting because it was eye-opening to look at how the development of new technologies can be detrimental to our society. I liked that Crawford and Joler discussed the origins of how devices came to be, detailing the mining process the labor that comes with it, because these realities are often overlooked. These readings and the documentary serve to remind us that we should strive to be aware of what these companies are doing and that we can still make efforts to be active rather than passive consumers. At the end of his article, Kyle Chayka talks about forming our own thoughts, opinions, and interests without being pushed by something outside of our introspective space. This is important to keep in mind when using digital or social media, so that we do not just go along with everything that we see.
The word ‘mirror’ has been often used throughout time with various meanings and implications. In literature, mirrors have commonly been used as a symbol of truth and the confrontation of the truth. One example that was mentioned in my keyword article by Adam Fish is Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, where the protagonist has a portrait of himself that ages while he does not. The portrait is used to reflect his soul and all of the bad things that he has done, serving as a bearer of the truth. Through this interpretation, mirrors can be seen as true representations of something or they can reveal truths. This is similar to how mirroring may be perceived in relation to data activists such as WikiLeaks, who use mirroring to preserve the truth in order to hold the powerful accountable.
Fish discusses how, “the business proposition of cloud companies is that mirroring is an affordable and socially responsible way of securing retrievable data. We congratulate ourselves when we back our data up, post autobiographical and personal artifacts, and work on the go by placing our documents in the cloud. The same proposition is compromised, however, by the facts that all this plays into surveillance with unseen consequences and costs for our body politic” (Fish 224). In this context, ‘mirroring’ is used in a way that focuses on the positive aspects of it, where people feel like they should mirror their data because it is convenient and can help them in the future. However, this obscures the fact that these companies encourage mirroring in order to capture people’s data. It focuses on the ways that mirroring can benefit the users, shifting the attention away from how the company itself may benefit from it.
