Digital media sociology
Table of Contents
Introductie .................................................................................................................................. 7
Sociologie ......................................................................................................................................................7
A digital media society ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Social structure & social positions and social roles ...................................................................................................... 7
Social structure & culture ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Digital media sociology ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Drie vragen gekoppeld aan 3 logica’s ............................................................................................................................ 8
Mediasociology vs mediapsychology vs mediastudies .................................................................................................. 8
Sociale structuur ........................................................................................................................ 9
Giddens’ structuration theory (1984) ...............................................................................................................9
Dualiteit van structuur................................................................................................................................................. 9
Relevantie ................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Duality of technology ................................................................................................................................... 10
Orlikowski’s (1992) duality of technology .................................................................................................................... 10
The structures of digital media: technological aBordances ............................................................................ 11
Digitale media........................................................................................................................................................... 11
Problemen ................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Functionele benadering: technologische aMordances ................................................................................................. 11
How do digital media aBect the social organization of society? ...................................................................... 12
Veranderde processen en routines ............................................................................................................................. 12
Network logic ............................................................................................................................. 13
Intro ............................................................................................................................................................ 13
Network society ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Historical transitions ................................................................................................................................................. 13
Networked society (Castells, 1996) ............................................................................................................................ 13
Technological paradigm ............................................................................................................................................ 14
Changes to the social order .......................................................................................................................... 16
Redefining space & time ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Space of flow ............................................................................................................................................................ 16
Timeless time ........................................................................................................................................................... 17
Giddens ................................................................................................................................................................... 18
A networked individual ................................................................................................................................. 19
Networked individualism ........................................................................................................................................... 19
Pre-modernity (agrarian society) ................................................................................................................................ 19
Modernity (industrial society) .................................................................................................................................... 19
From industrial to information capitalism ................................................................................................................... 20
Social implications ...................................................................................................................................... 21
Disembedding of social roles..................................................................................................................................... 21
Blurred boundaries ................................................................................................................................................... 21
1
, Networked individuals operating in hybrid spaces ......................................................................................... 22
Physical space as hybrid space ................................................................................................................................. 22
Opportunity but also obstacle ................................................................................................................................... 23
Rationalization & disintermediation ............................................................................................ 23
Rationalization ............................................................................................................................................. 23
Scientific rationality .................................................................................................................................................. 24
Enlightenment & scientific rationality ......................................................................................................................... 24
The age of enlightenment .......................................................................................................................................... 24
Rationalization.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Bureaucracy ............................................................................................................................................................. 25
Rationalization and capitalism................................................................................................................................... 25
Instrumental rationality ............................................................................................................................................. 26
Disenchantment and alienation ................................................................................................................................. 27
Rationalization & the network logic: disintermediation .................................................................................. 27
Technology and rationalization .................................................................................................................................. 27
Disintermediation ..................................................................................................................................................... 28
Microcoordination .................................................................................................................................................... 29
Flexible alignment ..................................................................................................................................................... 29
Acceleration ............................................................................................................................................................. 30
Rationalization & the network logic: broader implications .............................................................................. 30
Implications for the military ....................................................................................................................................... 30
Implications for economies in the global south ........................................................................................................... 32
Acceleration .............................................................................................................................. 34
Hartmut Rosa............................................................................................................................................... 34
Critical theory & phenomenology ............................................................................................................................... 34
Acceleration theory (Rosa, 2003) ................................................................................................................... 34
Drie vormen van acceleration .................................................................................................................................... 35
Technological acceleration ........................................................................................................................................ 35
Acceleration of social change .................................................................................................................................... 36
Acceleration of the pace of life................................................................................................................................... 36
Acceleration cycle .................................................................................................................................................... 36
Existential fear .......................................................................................................................................................... 37
How technology speeds up the pace of life .................................................................................................... 37
Time compression and acceleration .......................................................................................................................... 37
Disembedding of social roles..................................................................................................................................... 38
Quantity & quality of our time .................................................................................................................................... 38
The burnout epidemic ............................................................................................................................................... 39
Example: connectivity (after work hours) ....................................................................................................... 39
Work-home interference ........................................................................................................................................... 39
Reduced recovery from work ..................................................................................................................................... 40
Information overload ................................................................................................................................................. 40
Resonance ................................................................................................................................................... 41
Accelerated society .................................................................................................................................................. 41
Aggression ................................................................................................................................................................ 41
Antidote: resonance .................................................................................................................................................. 42
2
, What makes “resonance” .......................................................................................................................................... 43
Digital wellbeing & disconnection ............................................................................................... 45
What is digital disconnection? ...................................................................................................................... 45
Voluntary disconnection ........................................................................................................................................... 45
Involuntary disconnection ......................................................................................................................................... 46
Grey zone ................................................................................................................................................................. 46
What is digital wellbeing? ............................................................................................................................. 48
Psychology perspective ............................................................................................................................................. 48
Ethical perspective ................................................................................................................................................... 49
Socio-political perspective ........................................................................................................................................ 50
Merging disconnection and wellbeing ........................................................................................................................ 50
Understanding digital wellbeing & disconnection through care....................................................................... 51
Care ......................................................................................................................................................................... 51
Challenges of care work ............................................................................................................................................ 52
Care & wellbeing ....................................................................................................................................................... 54
Cases .......................................................................................................................................................... 54
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 56
The internet paradox .................................................................................................................. 56
Social or antisocial? ..................................................................................................................................... 56
The homenet study ................................................................................................................................................... 57
Two central hypotheses ............................................................................................................................................. 57
Time displacement ...................................................................................................................................... 57
Displacement theory and time use ............................................................................................................................ 57
Displacement theory: 4 principles ............................................................................................................................. 58
Social displacement hypothesis ................................................................................................................................ 58
Cues-filtered-out ......................................................................................................................................... 59
Waarom is de digitale communicatie inferieur? .......................................................................................................... 59
CMC theories ........................................................................................................................................................... 59
CMC theories re-visited ................................................................................................................................ 61
Cues filtered in: SIP theory ........................................................................................................................................ 61
Walther, Loh & Granka (2005)..................................................................................................................................... 62
SIP theory and aMordances........................................................................................................................................ 63
Online self-disclosure ............................................................................................................................................... 64
The need to belong ..................................................................................................................... 64
Humans as social beings .............................................................................................................................. 64
The evolutionary need to belong ................................................................................................................................ 65
Functionalism........................................................................................................................................................... 66
Social relationships: a socio-historical lens .................................................................................................. 66
From gemeinschaft to gesellschaft ............................................................................................................................ 66
Our need to belong ................................................................................................................................................... 68
Giddens: the “pure” relationship ................................................................................................................................ 69
In sum ...................................................................................................................................................................... 70
3
, Connected presence .................................................................................................................................... 70
Apparatgeist theory ................................................................................................................................................... 70
Connected presence (Licoppe, 2004) ......................................................................................................................... 71
Interactional aMordances that support connected presence ....................................................................................... 71
Interactional aMordances & social shaping of the “apparatgeist” ................................................................................. 72
Connected presence & need to belong....................................................................................................................... 73
Rituals: phatic communication & gift-giving .................................................................................................. 73
Interaction rituals & the everyday life.......................................................................................................................... 73
Phatic communication and gift-giving ........................................................................................................................ 74
Example: ephemeral communication ............................................................................................................ 76
Persistence (Treem & Leonardi, 2012) ........................................................................................................................ 76
Ephemeral social media ............................................................................................................................................ 76
Digital gemeinschaft .................................................................................................................................... 78
In sum ...................................................................................................................................................................... 78
Social capital ............................................................................................................................. 78
Media as a threat to social capital ................................................................................................................. 79
Bowling Alone – Robert D. Putnam ............................................................................................................................. 79
What is social capital?.................................................................................................................................. 79
Perspectieven ........................................................................................................................................................... 79
Social capital as a resource (micro) ........................................................................................................................... 80
Social capital as social support (meso) ...................................................................................................................... 81
Social capital as norms & trust (macro) ...................................................................................................................... 82
Public vs private face of social capital ........................................................................................................................ 83
Social media, social capital? ........................................................................................................................ 83
Social media / social network sites (SNS) ................................................................................................................... 83
Social media aMordances (2010)................................................................................................................................ 84
Social media and private face of social capital .............................................................................................. 84
Bonding vs bridging ................................................................................................................................................... 84
SNS and tie strength? ................................................................................................................................................ 84
“Maintaned” social capital ........................................................................................................................................ 85
Bonding, bridging & maintened .................................................................................................................................. 86
Oplossing: active vs passive use? .............................................................................................................................. 86
Social media, or social tv? ......................................................................................................................................... 87
Social media and public face of social capital ............................................................................................... 87
Reminder: public face of social capital....................................................................................................................... 87
Cyberbalkanization ................................................................................................................................................... 88
Floating worlds (Gergen, 2002) .................................................................................................................................. 89
Bounded solidarity .................................................................................................................................................... 90
Datafication, dataism & dataveillance......................................................................................... 90
Digitization & shifting perspectives on the user ............................................................................................. 90
Cross-device personalization .................................................................................................................................... 90
User-generated content............................................................................................................................................. 91
From a “modern” to a “late modern” consumer .......................................................................................................... 92
The personal logic ..................................................................................................................................................... 93
4
, Critical perspectives on datafication (Meijas & Couldry, 2019)..................................................................................... 93
Political economy: datafication, dataism & dataveillance .............................................................................. 94
Digital traces ............................................................................................................................................................ 94
Datafication .............................................................................................................................................................. 95
Dataism ................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Social media and the problem of dataveillance and (addictive) design ............................................................ 97
Behavioral design en addictive design ........................................................................................................................ 97
Surveillance capitalism ............................................................................................................................................. 98
Addictive design: two concurrent mechanisms......................................................................................................... 100
Information asymmetry ........................................................................................................................................... 101
EU’s digital services act ........................................................................................................................................... 101
Dataveillance............................................................................................................................................. 102
Dataveillance ......................................................................................................................................................... 102
Dataveillance & surveillance capitalism ................................................................................................................... 103
Legal: misuse and liability .......................................................................................................................... 103
Reactie van sociale mediabedrijven ......................................................................................................................... 104
Who is responsible? ................................................................................................................................................ 104
The quantified self? .................................................................................................................. 105
Political economy GenAI............................................................................................................................. 105
Economic logic ....................................................................................................................................................... 105
Legal: “misuse” and liability ....................................................................................................................... 105
Safe harbour principle ............................................................................................................................................. 106
Probleem bij GenAI ................................................................................................................................................. 106
Liability................................................................................................................................................................... 106
The EU AI Act: a risk-approach ................................................................................................................................. 107
The unaddressed problem: GenAI & the problem of representation .............................................................. 108
Representational harms .......................................................................................................................................... 109
GenAI & politics of invisibility ................................................................................................................................... 109
In sum: politiek van (in-)visibility .............................................................................................................................. 109
De(-colonialism) ........................................................................................................................................ 110
Nieuwe focus in het debat ....................................................................................................................................... 110
Link met representational harm ............................................................................................................................... 110
Onzichtbare arbeid achter GenAI ............................................................................................................................. 110
Self tracking for health ............................................................................................................. 110
Intro: the quantified self ............................................................................................................................. 110
Datafying health...................................................................................................................................................... 110
The quantified self movement.................................................................................................................................. 111
A history of self-measurement ................................................................................................................................. 112
External measurement and self-knowledge .............................................................................................................. 112
Self-tracking technologies .......................................................................................................................... 113
Weighing scale vs digital self-tracking: aMordances .................................................................................................. 113
Self-tracking technologies & digital labor ................................................................................................................. 114
Tension 1: empowerment vs disempowerment ............................................................................................ 115
5
, Remember: modernity & enlightenment ................................................................................................................... 115
Self-improvement: the self as a reflexive project ....................................................................................................... 115
Empowerment ........................................................................................................................................... 117
Moderniteit en het zelf als project ............................................................................................................................ 117
Empowerment: a self-determination approach ........................................................................................................ 118
Does self-tracking empower? .................................................................................................................................. 119
Disempowerment ...................................................................................................................................... 120
Surf-surveillance & self-discipline? .......................................................................................................................... 120
A Foucauldian perspective on power ........................................................................................................................ 120
Practices of self-surveillance and self-discipline ...................................................................................................... 123
Further tensions…knowledge is produced (power = knowledge) ................................................................................ 124
Tension 2: the politics of measurement & the reification of bodily experience ............................................... 124
The politics of measurement ................................................................................................................................... 124
Reification .............................................................................................................................................................. 126
Resistance ............................................................................................................................................................. 127
Tension 3: improving vs eroding health care ................................................................................................. 128
Personalized health care (PHC)................................................................................................................................ 128
Withdrawal of the state? .......................................................................................................................................... 129
Self-tracking supports a neo-liberalist agenda .......................................................................................................... 130
LLMs as personal digital assistants ........................................................................................... 132
From bots to chatbots to humanoid robots ............................................................................................................... 132
Digital assistants vs digital companions ................................................................................................................... 132
The social logic: can we relate to a robot?.................................................................................................... 133
The digital companion ............................................................................................................................................. 134
Anthropomorphism ................................................................................................................................................. 134
What makes social robots “human-like”? ................................................................................................................. 135
What makes digital companion “human-like”? ......................................................................................................... 137
Turing Test .............................................................................................................................................................. 138
Repercussions for our social relationships? ............................................................................................................. 139
Loss of relational authenticity, harm of dehumanization? ............................................................................ 141
Pygmalion & Galatea ............................................................................................................................................... 141
Humanization of AI = dehumanization? .................................................................................................................... 142
AI in relation tot he self: thwarted values ..................................................................................................... 143
Rationalisering ........................................................................................................................................................ 143
Korte termijn vs lange termijn impact ....................................................................................................................... 144
GenAI als empowerment ......................................................................................................................................... 144
6
Table of Contents
Introductie .................................................................................................................................. 7
Sociologie ......................................................................................................................................................7
A digital media society ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Social structure & social positions and social roles ...................................................................................................... 7
Social structure & culture ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Digital media sociology ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Drie vragen gekoppeld aan 3 logica’s ............................................................................................................................ 8
Mediasociology vs mediapsychology vs mediastudies .................................................................................................. 8
Sociale structuur ........................................................................................................................ 9
Giddens’ structuration theory (1984) ...............................................................................................................9
Dualiteit van structuur................................................................................................................................................. 9
Relevantie ................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Duality of technology ................................................................................................................................... 10
Orlikowski’s (1992) duality of technology .................................................................................................................... 10
The structures of digital media: technological aBordances ............................................................................ 11
Digitale media........................................................................................................................................................... 11
Problemen ................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Functionele benadering: technologische aMordances ................................................................................................. 11
How do digital media aBect the social organization of society? ...................................................................... 12
Veranderde processen en routines ............................................................................................................................. 12
Network logic ............................................................................................................................. 13
Intro ............................................................................................................................................................ 13
Network society ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Historical transitions ................................................................................................................................................. 13
Networked society (Castells, 1996) ............................................................................................................................ 13
Technological paradigm ............................................................................................................................................ 14
Changes to the social order .......................................................................................................................... 16
Redefining space & time ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Space of flow ............................................................................................................................................................ 16
Timeless time ........................................................................................................................................................... 17
Giddens ................................................................................................................................................................... 18
A networked individual ................................................................................................................................. 19
Networked individualism ........................................................................................................................................... 19
Pre-modernity (agrarian society) ................................................................................................................................ 19
Modernity (industrial society) .................................................................................................................................... 19
From industrial to information capitalism ................................................................................................................... 20
Social implications ...................................................................................................................................... 21
Disembedding of social roles..................................................................................................................................... 21
Blurred boundaries ................................................................................................................................................... 21
1
, Networked individuals operating in hybrid spaces ......................................................................................... 22
Physical space as hybrid space ................................................................................................................................. 22
Opportunity but also obstacle ................................................................................................................................... 23
Rationalization & disintermediation ............................................................................................ 23
Rationalization ............................................................................................................................................. 23
Scientific rationality .................................................................................................................................................. 24
Enlightenment & scientific rationality ......................................................................................................................... 24
The age of enlightenment .......................................................................................................................................... 24
Rationalization.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Bureaucracy ............................................................................................................................................................. 25
Rationalization and capitalism................................................................................................................................... 25
Instrumental rationality ............................................................................................................................................. 26
Disenchantment and alienation ................................................................................................................................. 27
Rationalization & the network logic: disintermediation .................................................................................. 27
Technology and rationalization .................................................................................................................................. 27
Disintermediation ..................................................................................................................................................... 28
Microcoordination .................................................................................................................................................... 29
Flexible alignment ..................................................................................................................................................... 29
Acceleration ............................................................................................................................................................. 30
Rationalization & the network logic: broader implications .............................................................................. 30
Implications for the military ....................................................................................................................................... 30
Implications for economies in the global south ........................................................................................................... 32
Acceleration .............................................................................................................................. 34
Hartmut Rosa............................................................................................................................................... 34
Critical theory & phenomenology ............................................................................................................................... 34
Acceleration theory (Rosa, 2003) ................................................................................................................... 34
Drie vormen van acceleration .................................................................................................................................... 35
Technological acceleration ........................................................................................................................................ 35
Acceleration of social change .................................................................................................................................... 36
Acceleration of the pace of life................................................................................................................................... 36
Acceleration cycle .................................................................................................................................................... 36
Existential fear .......................................................................................................................................................... 37
How technology speeds up the pace of life .................................................................................................... 37
Time compression and acceleration .......................................................................................................................... 37
Disembedding of social roles..................................................................................................................................... 38
Quantity & quality of our time .................................................................................................................................... 38
The burnout epidemic ............................................................................................................................................... 39
Example: connectivity (after work hours) ....................................................................................................... 39
Work-home interference ........................................................................................................................................... 39
Reduced recovery from work ..................................................................................................................................... 40
Information overload ................................................................................................................................................. 40
Resonance ................................................................................................................................................... 41
Accelerated society .................................................................................................................................................. 41
Aggression ................................................................................................................................................................ 41
Antidote: resonance .................................................................................................................................................. 42
2
, What makes “resonance” .......................................................................................................................................... 43
Digital wellbeing & disconnection ............................................................................................... 45
What is digital disconnection? ...................................................................................................................... 45
Voluntary disconnection ........................................................................................................................................... 45
Involuntary disconnection ......................................................................................................................................... 46
Grey zone ................................................................................................................................................................. 46
What is digital wellbeing? ............................................................................................................................. 48
Psychology perspective ............................................................................................................................................. 48
Ethical perspective ................................................................................................................................................... 49
Socio-political perspective ........................................................................................................................................ 50
Merging disconnection and wellbeing ........................................................................................................................ 50
Understanding digital wellbeing & disconnection through care....................................................................... 51
Care ......................................................................................................................................................................... 51
Challenges of care work ............................................................................................................................................ 52
Care & wellbeing ....................................................................................................................................................... 54
Cases .......................................................................................................................................................... 54
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 56
The internet paradox .................................................................................................................. 56
Social or antisocial? ..................................................................................................................................... 56
The homenet study ................................................................................................................................................... 57
Two central hypotheses ............................................................................................................................................. 57
Time displacement ...................................................................................................................................... 57
Displacement theory and time use ............................................................................................................................ 57
Displacement theory: 4 principles ............................................................................................................................. 58
Social displacement hypothesis ................................................................................................................................ 58
Cues-filtered-out ......................................................................................................................................... 59
Waarom is de digitale communicatie inferieur? .......................................................................................................... 59
CMC theories ........................................................................................................................................................... 59
CMC theories re-visited ................................................................................................................................ 61
Cues filtered in: SIP theory ........................................................................................................................................ 61
Walther, Loh & Granka (2005)..................................................................................................................................... 62
SIP theory and aMordances........................................................................................................................................ 63
Online self-disclosure ............................................................................................................................................... 64
The need to belong ..................................................................................................................... 64
Humans as social beings .............................................................................................................................. 64
The evolutionary need to belong ................................................................................................................................ 65
Functionalism........................................................................................................................................................... 66
Social relationships: a socio-historical lens .................................................................................................. 66
From gemeinschaft to gesellschaft ............................................................................................................................ 66
Our need to belong ................................................................................................................................................... 68
Giddens: the “pure” relationship ................................................................................................................................ 69
In sum ...................................................................................................................................................................... 70
3
, Connected presence .................................................................................................................................... 70
Apparatgeist theory ................................................................................................................................................... 70
Connected presence (Licoppe, 2004) ......................................................................................................................... 71
Interactional aMordances that support connected presence ....................................................................................... 71
Interactional aMordances & social shaping of the “apparatgeist” ................................................................................. 72
Connected presence & need to belong....................................................................................................................... 73
Rituals: phatic communication & gift-giving .................................................................................................. 73
Interaction rituals & the everyday life.......................................................................................................................... 73
Phatic communication and gift-giving ........................................................................................................................ 74
Example: ephemeral communication ............................................................................................................ 76
Persistence (Treem & Leonardi, 2012) ........................................................................................................................ 76
Ephemeral social media ............................................................................................................................................ 76
Digital gemeinschaft .................................................................................................................................... 78
In sum ...................................................................................................................................................................... 78
Social capital ............................................................................................................................. 78
Media as a threat to social capital ................................................................................................................. 79
Bowling Alone – Robert D. Putnam ............................................................................................................................. 79
What is social capital?.................................................................................................................................. 79
Perspectieven ........................................................................................................................................................... 79
Social capital as a resource (micro) ........................................................................................................................... 80
Social capital as social support (meso) ...................................................................................................................... 81
Social capital as norms & trust (macro) ...................................................................................................................... 82
Public vs private face of social capital ........................................................................................................................ 83
Social media, social capital? ........................................................................................................................ 83
Social media / social network sites (SNS) ................................................................................................................... 83
Social media aMordances (2010)................................................................................................................................ 84
Social media and private face of social capital .............................................................................................. 84
Bonding vs bridging ................................................................................................................................................... 84
SNS and tie strength? ................................................................................................................................................ 84
“Maintaned” social capital ........................................................................................................................................ 85
Bonding, bridging & maintened .................................................................................................................................. 86
Oplossing: active vs passive use? .............................................................................................................................. 86
Social media, or social tv? ......................................................................................................................................... 87
Social media and public face of social capital ............................................................................................... 87
Reminder: public face of social capital....................................................................................................................... 87
Cyberbalkanization ................................................................................................................................................... 88
Floating worlds (Gergen, 2002) .................................................................................................................................. 89
Bounded solidarity .................................................................................................................................................... 90
Datafication, dataism & dataveillance......................................................................................... 90
Digitization & shifting perspectives on the user ............................................................................................. 90
Cross-device personalization .................................................................................................................................... 90
User-generated content............................................................................................................................................. 91
From a “modern” to a “late modern” consumer .......................................................................................................... 92
The personal logic ..................................................................................................................................................... 93
4
, Critical perspectives on datafication (Meijas & Couldry, 2019)..................................................................................... 93
Political economy: datafication, dataism & dataveillance .............................................................................. 94
Digital traces ............................................................................................................................................................ 94
Datafication .............................................................................................................................................................. 95
Dataism ................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Social media and the problem of dataveillance and (addictive) design ............................................................ 97
Behavioral design en addictive design ........................................................................................................................ 97
Surveillance capitalism ............................................................................................................................................. 98
Addictive design: two concurrent mechanisms......................................................................................................... 100
Information asymmetry ........................................................................................................................................... 101
EU’s digital services act ........................................................................................................................................... 101
Dataveillance............................................................................................................................................. 102
Dataveillance ......................................................................................................................................................... 102
Dataveillance & surveillance capitalism ................................................................................................................... 103
Legal: misuse and liability .......................................................................................................................... 103
Reactie van sociale mediabedrijven ......................................................................................................................... 104
Who is responsible? ................................................................................................................................................ 104
The quantified self? .................................................................................................................. 105
Political economy GenAI............................................................................................................................. 105
Economic logic ....................................................................................................................................................... 105
Legal: “misuse” and liability ....................................................................................................................... 105
Safe harbour principle ............................................................................................................................................. 106
Probleem bij GenAI ................................................................................................................................................. 106
Liability................................................................................................................................................................... 106
The EU AI Act: a risk-approach ................................................................................................................................. 107
The unaddressed problem: GenAI & the problem of representation .............................................................. 108
Representational harms .......................................................................................................................................... 109
GenAI & politics of invisibility ................................................................................................................................... 109
In sum: politiek van (in-)visibility .............................................................................................................................. 109
De(-colonialism) ........................................................................................................................................ 110
Nieuwe focus in het debat ....................................................................................................................................... 110
Link met representational harm ............................................................................................................................... 110
Onzichtbare arbeid achter GenAI ............................................................................................................................. 110
Self tracking for health ............................................................................................................. 110
Intro: the quantified self ............................................................................................................................. 110
Datafying health...................................................................................................................................................... 110
The quantified self movement.................................................................................................................................. 111
A history of self-measurement ................................................................................................................................. 112
External measurement and self-knowledge .............................................................................................................. 112
Self-tracking technologies .......................................................................................................................... 113
Weighing scale vs digital self-tracking: aMordances .................................................................................................. 113
Self-tracking technologies & digital labor ................................................................................................................. 114
Tension 1: empowerment vs disempowerment ............................................................................................ 115
5
, Remember: modernity & enlightenment ................................................................................................................... 115
Self-improvement: the self as a reflexive project ....................................................................................................... 115
Empowerment ........................................................................................................................................... 117
Moderniteit en het zelf als project ............................................................................................................................ 117
Empowerment: a self-determination approach ........................................................................................................ 118
Does self-tracking empower? .................................................................................................................................. 119
Disempowerment ...................................................................................................................................... 120
Surf-surveillance & self-discipline? .......................................................................................................................... 120
A Foucauldian perspective on power ........................................................................................................................ 120
Practices of self-surveillance and self-discipline ...................................................................................................... 123
Further tensions…knowledge is produced (power = knowledge) ................................................................................ 124
Tension 2: the politics of measurement & the reification of bodily experience ............................................... 124
The politics of measurement ................................................................................................................................... 124
Reification .............................................................................................................................................................. 126
Resistance ............................................................................................................................................................. 127
Tension 3: improving vs eroding health care ................................................................................................. 128
Personalized health care (PHC)................................................................................................................................ 128
Withdrawal of the state? .......................................................................................................................................... 129
Self-tracking supports a neo-liberalist agenda .......................................................................................................... 130
LLMs as personal digital assistants ........................................................................................... 132
From bots to chatbots to humanoid robots ............................................................................................................... 132
Digital assistants vs digital companions ................................................................................................................... 132
The social logic: can we relate to a robot?.................................................................................................... 133
The digital companion ............................................................................................................................................. 134
Anthropomorphism ................................................................................................................................................. 134
What makes social robots “human-like”? ................................................................................................................. 135
What makes digital companion “human-like”? ......................................................................................................... 137
Turing Test .............................................................................................................................................................. 138
Repercussions for our social relationships? ............................................................................................................. 139
Loss of relational authenticity, harm of dehumanization? ............................................................................ 141
Pygmalion & Galatea ............................................................................................................................................... 141
Humanization of AI = dehumanization? .................................................................................................................... 142
AI in relation tot he self: thwarted values ..................................................................................................... 143
Rationalisering ........................................................................................................................................................ 143
Korte termijn vs lange termijn impact ....................................................................................................................... 144
GenAI als empowerment ......................................................................................................................................... 144
6
