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Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an Age of Disconnection
The exhaustion, disappointment, and listlessness experienced under digital capitalism, explored through works by contemporary artists, writers, and performers.
Sometimes, interacting with digital platforms, we want to be passive—in those moments of dissociation when we scroll mindlessly rather than connecting with anyone, for example, or when our only response is a shrugging “lol.” Despite encouragement by these platforms to “be yourself,” we want to be anyone but ourselves. Tung-Hui Hu calls this state of exhaustion, disappointment, and listlessness digital lethargy . This condition permeates our lives under digital capitalism, whether we are “users,” who are what they click, or racialized workers in Asia and the Global South. Far from being a state of apathy, however, lethargy may hold the potential for social change.
Hu explores digital lethargy through a series of works by contemporary artists, writers, and performers. These dispatches from the bleeding edge of digital culture include a fictional dystopia where low-wage Mexican workers laugh and emote for white audiences; a group that invites lazy viewers to strap their Fitbits to a swinging metronome, faking fitness and earning a discount on their health insurance premiums; and a memoir of burnout in an Amazon warehouse. These works dwell within the ordinariness and even banality of digital life, redirecting our attention toward moments of thwarted agency, waiting and passing time. Lethargy, writes Hu, is a it weighs down our ability to rush to solutions, and forces us to talk about the unresolved present.
Sometimes, interacting with digital platforms, we want to be passive—in those moments of dissociation when we scroll mindlessly rather than connecting with anyone, for example, or when our only response is a shrugging “lol.” Despite encouragement by these platforms to “be yourself,” we want to be anyone but ourselves. Tung-Hui Hu calls this state of exhaustion, disappointment, and listlessness digital lethargy . This condition permeates our lives under digital capitalism, whether we are “users,” who are what they click, or racialized workers in Asia and the Global South. Far from being a state of apathy, however, lethargy may hold the potential for social change.
Hu explores digital lethargy through a series of works by contemporary artists, writers, and performers. These dispatches from the bleeding edge of digital culture include a fictional dystopia where low-wage Mexican workers laugh and emote for white audiences; a group that invites lazy viewers to strap their Fitbits to a swinging metronome, faking fitness and earning a discount on their health insurance premiums; and a memoir of burnout in an Amazon warehouse. These works dwell within the ordinariness and even banality of digital life, redirecting our attention toward moments of thwarted agency, waiting and passing time. Lethargy, writes Hu, is a it weighs down our ability to rush to solutions, and forces us to talk about the unresolved present.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published October 4, 2022
15 people are currently reading
1683 people want to read
About the author
Tung-Hui Hu
9 books23 followersTung-Hui Hu is a poet and a media scholar. A former network engineer, Hu is interested in understanding the hidden mechanisms within digital culture, and imagining alternatives for its future. He is an associate professor of English at the University of Michigan, and his research has been featured on BBC Radio 4, CBS News, Boston Globe, and many other venues.
His new book is Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an Age of Disconnection, an exploration of burnout, isolation, and disempowerment in the digital underclass. Hu currently lives in Rome, where he is a 2022-23 Rome Prize Fellow in Literature at the American Academy in Rome.
His new book is Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an Age of Disconnection, an exploration of burnout, isolation, and disempowerment in the digital underclass. Hu currently lives in Rome, where he is a 2022-23 Rome Prize Fellow in Literature at the American Academy in Rome.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 25, 2022
The concept of this book is really interesting, and certainly one that will spark conversation. Its execution, though, left a bit to be desired for me: it's too technical for my taste and brain at this point, heh; ergo a DNF.
I do think a discussion on the digital world we live in is necessary, along with the rise of misinformation and other things we did not see coming with the advancement of technology. All tech inventions address a need of some kind--but it's impossible to know down-the-line ramifications up front. (Much like the pandemic; we had no idea how it would play out psychologically or on our mental health, let alone physical.)
I just personally need a Cliff's Notes version of this one. :)
I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I do think a discussion on the digital world we live in is necessary, along with the rise of misinformation and other things we did not see coming with the advancement of technology. All tech inventions address a need of some kind--but it's impossible to know down-the-line ramifications up front. (Much like the pandemic; we had no idea how it would play out psychologically or on our mental health, let alone physical.)
I just personally need a Cliff's Notes version of this one. :)
I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
June 5, 2022
Reading this book, it was hard for me to imagine that I could have been born anywhere other than MIT. That is a huge compliment from me.
This is an analysis, with great content of educated criticism, of the role of new technologies and connectivity in our society, psychology, economy, and the role it has in inequality. It forces us to put our ideas about it in perspective, not with the desire to attack progress, but to call us, from multiple literary fragments, to pause and question digital capitalism.
This is an analysis, with great content of educated criticism, of the role of new technologies and connectivity in our society, psychology, economy, and the role it has in inequality. It forces us to put our ideas about it in perspective, not with the desire to attack progress, but to call us, from multiple literary fragments, to pause and question digital capitalism.
October 19, 2022
https://shonareads.wordpress.com/2022...
Thank you to NetGalley and to MIT Press for this ARC.
Once in a while I like to read something challenging, something with concepts that may go over my head. Sometimes this happens accidentally, like with this book, which I requested for the description, rather than because I knew much about it before going in. The book feels like it is directed towards a certain subsection of academia, possibly those working in areas of technology, human interaction, and maybe futurity. Having said all of that, I really enjoyed having my poor little brain challenged, and my thoughts stretched; which is to say, this is not a light read.
I carefully followed where the author led, and took many, many notes. I thought lots (more) about personhood, and robots in service—human, and otherwise. I thought about “Third World” labour, and how today’s AI is really that (or, “artificial artificial intelligence“). I thought about neoliberalism, and how it sells false hope (this, in relation to Afro-pessimism). I learnt about timepass, which is a really wonderful concept. I thought a lot about the digital supply chain, and (all of) our place in it; and about “race neutrality” in technology. I also have new ideas about the widespread use of Black people in memes.
So, if any of these things interest you, this book will interest you. However, be warned: it is challenging for the average reader (or, me). The author makes a good, if complex case for lethargy (defined in the book) as a form of agency, arguing that technocapitalism wants us to always be doing something, or waiting to do something.
My rating: 8/10, mainly for introducing me to new ideas, and for making me work.
Thank you to NetGalley and to MIT Press for this ARC.
Once in a while I like to read something challenging, something with concepts that may go over my head. Sometimes this happens accidentally, like with this book, which I requested for the description, rather than because I knew much about it before going in. The book feels like it is directed towards a certain subsection of academia, possibly those working in areas of technology, human interaction, and maybe futurity. Having said all of that, I really enjoyed having my poor little brain challenged, and my thoughts stretched; which is to say, this is not a light read.
I carefully followed where the author led, and took many, many notes. I thought lots (more) about personhood, and robots in service—human, and otherwise. I thought about “Third World” labour, and how today’s AI is really that (or, “artificial artificial intelligence“). I thought about neoliberalism, and how it sells false hope (this, in relation to Afro-pessimism). I learnt about timepass, which is a really wonderful concept. I thought a lot about the digital supply chain, and (all of) our place in it; and about “race neutrality” in technology. I also have new ideas about the widespread use of Black people in memes.
So, if any of these things interest you, this book will interest you. However, be warned: it is challenging for the average reader (or, me). The author makes a good, if complex case for lethargy (defined in the book) as a form of agency, arguing that technocapitalism wants us to always be doing something, or waiting to do something.
My rating: 8/10, mainly for introducing me to new ideas, and for making me work.
January 19, 2023
Wonderful book but too dense and technical for me
February 12, 2025
Pretty boring ngl. Interesting ideas but the book left much to be desired in terms of execution.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews