Fanjul, S. C. (2021, October 15). Byung-Chul Han: The Smartphone is a Tool of Domination. EL PAÍS English. https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-15/byung-chul-han-the-smartphone-is-a-tool-of-domination-it-acts-like-a-rosary.html
Summary
In this interview, philosopher Byung-Chul Han discusses how, under our present neoliberal regime, “digital domination” is achieved using smartphones. Smartphones inspire a religious-like fervor, their omnipresence disconnection us from present reality constantly. Han believes rituals are key to happy life, but the deluge of information we experience today scatters and fragments our behavior into extreme forms, like hyperconsumption.
Atomic notes
- Digital capitalism exploits the human drive for play, after Han#wip
- The smartphone acts as a digital confessional, after Han
Reading notes
- Byung-Chul Han’s philosophical theories unpack the social maladies caused by neoliberal capitalism.
- In Han’s “psychopolitics,” subjects surrender to the system’s seduction and eroticism disappears. This causes the current rise of narcissism and exhibitionism.
- This narcissism is enabled by social media.
Quote
He despairs of “the disappearance of rituals,” which also makes entire communities disappear along with them. We become lost individuals, in sick and cruel societies.
Quote
Today we are obsessed not with things, but with information and data, that is to say, non-things. Today we are all infomaniacs.
- The objects of hyperconsumption are disposable; people cannot bond with them or establish rituals.
- Han believes that rituals are the key to happy life.
- Without the stability and temporal structure provided by rituals, we fall into depression.
- Depression is the defining illness of achievement society, after Han; we are saturated with information from our smartphones.
- Instead of replacing work with play, technological advancements turn play into another behavior to exploited.
- Again referencing social media, which commands attention through gamification and playful elements.
- The neoliberal regime exploits freedom. It is not oppressive, but seductive.
- Artificial intelligence is a primitive form of knowledge because it depends entirely on correlation.
Quote
We are constantly comparing ourselves with others. It is precisely this comparison that makes us all the same. In other words: the obligation to be authentic leads to the hell of sameness.
- We perceive the world through information, losing the ability to be physically present. This causes our “disconnection,” despite being ostensibly more connected than ever before.
- Often, support from others is replaced by support from smartphones. Han uses the vivid example of a mother handing a phone to a scared child at the dentist, instead of offering her own hand.
- We are forced to support ourselves. This leads to depression, where we have lost our relationship with the “other.”