Hardwiring society's digital addiction

Smartphones a disease eating away at our desire for freedom

- SEAN CARNEY

DIGITAL addiction is a socially transmitted 'disease' arising from our technological subjectification which is the process of turning us into objects of knowledge.

Today a constellation of industry influencers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), intelligence agencies, politicians, military figures and celebrities are selling 'digital transformation' and a 'smart future'.

They are doing this while shaping society into a tool of technology. Not for the first time in history has a self-appointed elite driven a technocratic agenda, reimagining society to sustain their own glorification and power.

These technocratic stakeholders fuel our digital addiction to maintain sustained influence and mastery over society.

And scientists recognise that internet addiction is now an epidemic leading to psychological injury, mental health damage and other health problems.

In 2019, the World Health Organisation recognised gaming disorder as a disease, and in 2020, addiction to digital technology was named as another pressing health issue. Internet-connecting digital technology induces dysfunctional attitudes and behaviours as well as dependency on devices.

We must realise that digital devices and apps are made as seductively gamified and as addictive as possible. Automated Intelligence (Al) will exploit individual's vulnerabilities and desires via access to vast reserves of your data.

People are becoming strung out as if their devices supply electronic heroin. By normalising addiction to technology and defending technology as if it were essential to our very being — we have moved from being a society that perceives itself as empowered by a world of digital tools in a democracy, to becoming the very tools of the digitally created world.