False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

Surveillance capitalism isn’t “inevitable,” and 
people aren’t ready and willing to give up 
privacy in the name of convenience.
So, what can be done about surveillance 
capitalism?
First of all, it’s important for people to realize the 
true scope of what’s going on behind the 
scenes, and that there are other options.
The key message here is: Surveillance 
capitalism isn’t “inevitable,” and people aren’t 
ready and willing to give up privacy in the name 
of convenience.
Surveys conducted in 2009 and 2015 showed 
that between 73 and 91 percent of people reject 
the very idea of targeted advertising when told 
about the ways in which their personal data is 
being collected.
Right now, there is a hugely disproportionate 
balance in information. This extends to how 
companies are collecting personal information, 
what kinds of data are being collected and 
analyzed, and what that information is being 
used for. When this becomes clear, outrage 
soon follows.
It’s also important to fight back now. There is a 
generation of people growing up having never 
known a world without smartphones. Not only is 
this generation more prone to normalizing the 
practices of surveillance capitalism; they’re also 
especially vulnerable to the psychological effects 
of these practices.
In 2017, former Facebook president Sean 
Parker admitted that Facebook, like other social 
media platforms, uses behaviorist tactics such 
as variable reinforcement to keep people 
chasing after hits of dopamine – and, more 
importantly, to keep them glued to their news 
feed.
Unsurprisingly, this results in the same 
depressive psychological symptoms that people 
suffering from addiction and withdrawal 
experience. But along with addiction, the near-
constant online exposure that today’s teens 
experience has also been shown to produce 
feelings of confusion, distress, boredom, and 
isolation.

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Research has shown that “Facebook use does 
not promote well-being,” and the same could be 
said for the practices of surveillance capitalism 
in general. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
In 2000, researchers at Georgia Tech were 
developing the Aware Home. This was a vision 
of “ubiquitous computing” that isn’t far from the 
“smart home” that surveillance capitalists are 
bringing to reality. The big difference is that the 
Aware Home was designed with user privacy in 
mind. 
The data produced by the users would be under 
their control. It honored the age-old concept of a 
person’s home being their sanctuary and a place 
where they could be free from surveillance. 
Sadly, a year later, that concept was uprooted 
by the events of September 11. But that doesn’t 
mean we have to give up on this worthwhile 
dream.