Played By the Machine: Everyday Struggles for Autonomy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism
(2025) SANM05 20241Social Anthropology
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Shoshana Zuboff means that the world is increasingly defined by a new system of control she calls ‘surveillance capitalism’ – an emerging digital market in the business of mining, selling, modifying and predicting human behavior through digital surveillance. Concerns have been raised that this obfuscated but ubiquitous form of governance is detrimental for individual autonomy. This thesis aims to explore and complicate such claims by investigating how digital exploitation is felt and experienced from the ground. I explore the conditions of autonomy as sensed by six participants between the ages of 26-40 in their everyday life through their digital engagement and micro-resistances. Through the lens of ‘surveillance capitalism’ and concepts... (More)
- Shoshana Zuboff means that the world is increasingly defined by a new system of control she calls ‘surveillance capitalism’ – an emerging digital market in the business of mining, selling, modifying and predicting human behavior through digital surveillance. Concerns have been raised that this obfuscated but ubiquitous form of governance is detrimental for individual autonomy. This thesis aims to explore and complicate such claims by investigating how digital exploitation is felt and experienced from the ground. I explore the conditions of autonomy as sensed by six participants between the ages of 26-40 in their everyday life through their digital engagement and micro-resistances. Through the lens of ‘surveillance capitalism’ and concepts like “the machine zone” and “convenience” I find that participants experience surveillance capitalism as a dependency and sometimes addiction, which stems from a digital relationship of experiential absorption and behavioral automaticity. Simultaneously, they find distraction, escape, and comfort in both excitable and calming content online in the context of a precarious world. I contextualize their experiences as being shaped by both persuasive design and neoliberal ideals – concepts they resist both through digital engagement and disengagement. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9213389
- author
- Campbell, Ebba LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SANM05 20241
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- surveillance capitalism, social media, convenience, social anthropology, persuasive technology, everyday resistance, micro-resistance, power, autonomy
- language
- English
- id
- 9213389
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-01 12:52:21
- date last changed
- 2025-10-01 12:52:21
@misc{9213389,
abstract = {{Shoshana Zuboff means that the world is increasingly defined by a new system of control she calls ‘surveillance capitalism’ – an emerging digital market in the business of mining, selling, modifying and predicting human behavior through digital surveillance. Concerns have been raised that this obfuscated but ubiquitous form of governance is detrimental for individual autonomy. This thesis aims to explore and complicate such claims by investigating how digital exploitation is felt and experienced from the ground. I explore the conditions of autonomy as sensed by six participants between the ages of 26-40 in their everyday life through their digital engagement and micro-resistances. Through the lens of ‘surveillance capitalism’ and concepts like “the machine zone” and “convenience” I find that participants experience surveillance capitalism as a dependency and sometimes addiction, which stems from a digital relationship of experiential absorption and behavioral automaticity. Simultaneously, they find distraction, escape, and comfort in both excitable and calming content online in the context of a precarious world. I contextualize their experiences as being shaped by both persuasive design and neoliberal ideals – concepts they resist both through digital engagement and disengagement.}},
author = {{Campbell, Ebba}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Played By the Machine: Everyday Struggles for Autonomy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism}},
year = {{2025}},
}