On the Virtues of Programming
Douglas Rushkoff is an American Media theorist, with his work focusing mainly on technology and the role it plays in our lives. In his works, he also highlights the way media affects consumers, placing emphasis on the way corporations use technology to both make more money, as well as to obfuscate their motive of making more money. Rushkoff points out that in order to flourish in and navigate a programmed environment, one must be cognizant of the fact their environment is programmed and must learn how to program as well. As shown by the quote below, he emphasizes the ability to understand and manipulate a programmed environment.
The first step toward maintaining autonomy in any programmed environment is to be aware that there’s programming going on. It’s as simple as understanding the commercials are there to help sell things. And that TV shows are there to sell commercials, and so on.
In order to do this in our society, he reasons that people in our society must learn how to program, or, at the very least, be wary when programming is going on and what it is doing. For example, he theorizes that the reason Facebook is so prolific and successful because people don’t understand exactly what the programming behind Facebook is doing. If people were to learn how to program, they would be able to understand what Facebook is doing. This essentially mimics the gathering of personal data that Facebook does, acting as a periscope into the design and plans of Facebook.
In conclusion, Rushkoff claims in his book “Program or be Programmed” that in order to survive in this ever-more-interconnected world, consumers must learn the mechanisms of action of the sites they use. In essence, they must learn how to program in order to effectively understand what their actions on the internet entail and cause. Essentially, an informed consumer makes the wisest choices regarding what they consume.
