Throughout the 21st century, the availability of consumer technology has skyrocketed in the western world. Never in the entirety of written history have humans been able to connect to each other at the speed we currently are capable
of.
As more and more people connect to social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc., we find our social lives moving further and further onto the internet - to discord servers, group texts, etc. These posts we make,or
the texts we send, are carefully thought out and constructed representations of ourselves. In essence, what we post, our digital identity, is a perfectly curated perception of ourselves - it is more often a reflection of who we WISH
we were, rather than actually are. This connectivity is not inherently a bad thing - it can be a wonderful medium of expression. However, as we grow increasingly dependent on it, and as companies seek to exploit this connectivity for
financial gain, a great deal of problems begin to arise.
One hundred percent of the content you consume on the net is fed to you through algorithms. You click on one thing, or comment on another, and whatever app you are using stores that information to your account,
a digital representation of your personality, and uses it to better predict what to feed you next, so that you're more likely to stay on the app and enjoy content. If you used an email to sign up for that app, or a phone number,
or anything else personal to you, then that usage data is more than likely going to follow you to all the other places you use that email on and beyond (corps LOVE buying your info to use for advertising). This is why sometimes when
you mention some product you were thinking about somewhere, you see ads for said product a while later. Its not just confirmation bias - your personality really is being tracked like that when you use the net.
Most people don't view this tracking as an inherently bad thing, and upon first glance one's own instinct is to say "well, if I can't avoid it, then at least I get reccomended things I like."
But in an age where the content we consume is increasingly algorithmically driven, where we no longer have to really search for the things we are interested in, who is really defining what you like, who is defining what
makes up your personality? Algorithms are merely
designed to predict what you like, and indeed they don't do any black magic fuckery behind the scenes (I've checked...), but as we spend more time online and thus more time consuming algorithmically guessed content, are we really
determining our interests anymore? I can think of numerous things that I enjoy that I would not otherwise have come across had a corporation's algorithm not guessed, based on the personality it has cultivated for me in its memory of my
usage statistics, that I would enjoy it.
When we consider that companies seek to dominate more and more of our subconscious mind for the sake of keeping us dependent on their tech, a sinister web begins to form between these two ideas I've outlined. If we are more connected
to each other than ever, if we are putting more and more of these intricately designed mirrors of our real selves onto the net, where all these companies are looking to dominate our subconscious thoughts to keep us talking about their
platforms by creating algorithms that predict our personalities, then where do our "digital selves" stop and our "real selves" begin? The one who controls the algorithms has complete control over all others.
The Wired is the melting point between our real selves and the omnipresent digital persona which follows us, where flesh and metal meet. It is the web which connects us all, trapping us in a feedback loop of constant consumption,
keeping us complacent with our little games, our cute posts, our manufactured drama. It is the algorithms that determine our interests, the underlying forces that determine our cultural subconscious - the base imprint which we create
ourselves from. It is present in every aspect of life, and this only becomes more true as time passes and we grow increasingly connected. No matter where we go, everyone is always connected through the Wired.
I am you, you are me. Where is the line between the digital and real world when our "real world" is dependent on the digital?
-Mako