What is the problem?
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 8:37 am
Now, what is the real problem? Some experts attribute the triggering of the problems arising from the consumption of digital content to the combination of the adaptation of the economic model, the commercialization of private data and the massification of smartphones. Given that smartphones allow a permanent connection, something that could not be achieved before with a computer or television, there is no time limit to try to capture people's attention and their personal data. What this dominican republic phone number list is that it goes from being a habit to having attention on these platforms, to an addiction, as it is no longer trying to provoke reactions but emotions. Emotions become the most efficient link for a message to have the best economic profitability. The philosopher Byung-chul Han constantly discusses this aspect in his psychopolitics, saying:
“Not the value of use, but the emotional or cult value is constitutive of the economy of consumption. […] It is now that emotion becomes a means of production. […] The acceleration of communication favors its emotionalization, since rationality is slower than emotionality. Rationality is, in a certain way, without speed. Hence the accelerating impulse leads to the dictatorship of emotion. […] Things cannot be consumed infinitely, but emotions, on the other hand, can.”
This becomes a problem when instead of controlling our free time, thoughts and emotions, they are controlled by this digital world, without thinking that the information fed by the actions of users can lead them to see the world uncritically, which is very dangerous in all political and social aspects. We must remember that being the product through our personal data can be used for many more things than just selling products. When people do not question their world around them, it becomes easier to fall prey to a single thought of who has the power of this information.
But in addition to this, and no less important, is that most people consume information in an unfocused way, which generates high levels of unproductivity, loss of self-esteem, and an impact on mental health by not being able to achieve goals or dreams due to the number of these distractions, or by seeing the world through stereotypes and lives that are not completely real, which creates gaps in how people perceive ourselves. Namely, a zero tolerance for frustration. We are ceasing to live in a real world to move on to a virtual life that gives us very ephemeral gratifications. So we connect better with a screen than with people.
“Not the value of use, but the emotional or cult value is constitutive of the economy of consumption. […] It is now that emotion becomes a means of production. […] The acceleration of communication favors its emotionalization, since rationality is slower than emotionality. Rationality is, in a certain way, without speed. Hence the accelerating impulse leads to the dictatorship of emotion. […] Things cannot be consumed infinitely, but emotions, on the other hand, can.”
This becomes a problem when instead of controlling our free time, thoughts and emotions, they are controlled by this digital world, without thinking that the information fed by the actions of users can lead them to see the world uncritically, which is very dangerous in all political and social aspects. We must remember that being the product through our personal data can be used for many more things than just selling products. When people do not question their world around them, it becomes easier to fall prey to a single thought of who has the power of this information.
But in addition to this, and no less important, is that most people consume information in an unfocused way, which generates high levels of unproductivity, loss of self-esteem, and an impact on mental health by not being able to achieve goals or dreams due to the number of these distractions, or by seeing the world through stereotypes and lives that are not completely real, which creates gaps in how people perceive ourselves. Namely, a zero tolerance for frustration. We are ceasing to live in a real world to move on to a virtual life that gives us very ephemeral gratifications. So we connect better with a screen than with people.