Trapped in The Digital Square
How technology is chipping away at the very fabric of socio-political exchange.
The People Vs Tech: How the internet is killing democracy (and how we save it)
By Jamie Bartlett
Ebury Press (Penguin books)
256 pages; Rs 499
By Jamie Bartlett
Ebury Press (Penguin books)
256 pages; Rs 499
JAMIE BARTLETT is a technology reporter and currently associated with the UK-based think-tank Demos. He says that democracy is by its very nature analogue and at odds with the world the Silicon Valley-digital tech is rapidly creating. His core argument in this book, hence, is provocative — politics is at risk from technology.
Events in Tunisia, and then in Egypt in 2011, seemed to convince people that social media was a boon for political mobilisation. But the praise that Google and Facebookgathered was limited to their role in countries not seen as liberal democracies — injecting elements of connectivity and political discussion not possible otherwise, and, providing a forum which could generate agitation and be put to political use. It is another matter that no spark might have been kindled at all but for the old-fashioned and hard-nosed trade-union activity with cotton farmers in Luxor city in southern Egypt, and around. But seven years down the line — in the context of Brexit, the US elections, the “missed call” political party memberships, the use of WhatsApp as a political pamphlet in countries like India, or more recently, how the gilets jauns in France started as an online campaign — even argumentative and democratic societies are fully experiencing the deep influence of technology in their socio-political expression.
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