The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

by Shoshana Zuboff

This is not a rehearsal. This is the show. Facebook is a prototype of instrumentarian society, not a prophecy. It is the first frontier of a new societal territory, and the youngest among us are its vanguard. The frontier experience is an epidemic of the viewpoint of the Other-One, a hyper-objectification of one’s own personhood shaped by the relentless amplification of life lived from the “outside looking in.” The consequence is a pattern of overwhelming anxiety and disorientation in the simple act of digital disconnection, while connection itself is haunted by fresh anxieties that paradoxically leave too many feeling isolated, diminished, and depressed. One wants to say that the struggles of youth can be painful in any era and that it is simply the destiny of today’s young people to encounter the work of self-construction in this milieu of digital connection and illumination, with its truly marvelous opportunities for voice, community, information, and exploration. One wants to say they will get through it, just as other generations survived the adolescent trials of their time and place.