
The Smartphone Society
Technology, Power, and Resistance in the New Gilded Age
Nicole Aschoff(Author)
Beacon Press
Published on 10. March 2020
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-0-8070-6168-8 (ISBN)
Description
Addresses how tech empowers community organizing and protest movements to combat the systems of capitalism and data exploitation that helped drive tech's own rise to ubiquity.
Our smartphones have brought digital technology into the most intimate spheres of life. It's time to take control of them, repurposing them as pathways to a democratically designed and maintained digital commons that prioritizes people over profit.
Smartphones have appeared everywhere seemingly overnight: since the first iPhone was released, in 2007, the number of smartphone users has skyrocketed to over two billion. Smartphones have allowed users to connect worldwide in a way that was previously impossible, created communities across continents, and provided platforms for global justice movements. However, the rise of smartphones has led to corporations using consumers' personal data for profit, unmonitored surveillance, and digital monopolies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon that have garnered control over our social, political, and economic landscapes.
But people are using their smartphones to fight back. New modes of resistance are emerging, signaling the possibility that our pocket computers could be harnessed for the benefit of people, not profit. From helping to organize protests against the US-Mexico border wall through Twitter to being used to report police brutality through Facebook Live, smartphones open a door for collective change.
Our smartphones have brought digital technology into the most intimate spheres of life. It's time to take control of them, repurposing them as pathways to a democratically designed and maintained digital commons that prioritizes people over profit.
Smartphones have appeared everywhere seemingly overnight: since the first iPhone was released, in 2007, the number of smartphone users has skyrocketed to over two billion. Smartphones have allowed users to connect worldwide in a way that was previously impossible, created communities across continents, and provided platforms for global justice movements. However, the rise of smartphones has led to corporations using consumers' personal data for profit, unmonitored surveillance, and digital monopolies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon that have garnered control over our social, political, and economic landscapes.
But people are using their smartphones to fight back. New modes of resistance are emerging, signaling the possibility that our pocket computers could be harnessed for the benefit of people, not profit. From helping to organize protests against the US-Mexico border wall through Twitter to being used to report police brutality through Facebook Live, smartphones open a door for collective change.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
460 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8070-6168-8 (9780807061688)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2020
Beacon Press
€16.49
Available for download
Person
Nicole Aschoff
Content
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
New Divides (or, Old Divides Made New)
CHAPTER 2
New Titans
CHAPTER 3
New Frontier
CHAPTER 4
New Politics
CHAPTER 5
New Spirit
CHAPTER 6
New Map
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index
CHAPTER 1
New Divides (or, Old Divides Made New)
CHAPTER 2
New Titans
CHAPTER 3
New Frontier
CHAPTER 4
New Politics
CHAPTER 5
New Spirit
CHAPTER 6
New Map
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index