3 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2017
    1. JonathanFranzenaccusesAmazonofturningliterarycultureintoshallowformsofsocialengagementconsistingof‘yakkersandtweetersandbraggers’andTwitterasthe‘ultimateirresponsiblemedium.’[89]Thesemisfiresproduceatleasttwoinfelicities.First,inadvertentlytheyendupascribingmorepowertosuchcorporationsasAmazonorGooglethantheyactuallyhave.WhilemuchattentionisgiventotheautomatedandcomputationalaspectsofGoogle,theworkingsofthesearchengineareunstableandrelyonthedistributed,heterogeneous,anddynamicactionsofnotonlyalgorithmsbutalsoengineers,operators,webmasters,andusers.[90]Second,theyascribelesspowertopeoplethantheyactuallyhave.WhiletherulesofGoogle’salgorithmandfunctionssuchasautocompleteareatightlyheldsecret,Google’soperationisshapedandmediatedbythesearch-and-findbehavioursofcitizensubjects
    2. Ifwefocusoncallingsandtheactionstheymobilizeandhowtheymakeactspossible,wealsoshiftourfocusfromafreedomversuscontroldichotomytotheplayofobedience,submission,andsubversion.Thisisaplayconfiguredbytheforcesoflegality,performativity,andimaginarywhichcalluponsubjectstobeopenandresponsibleandthroughwhichmostlygovernmentalbutalsocommercialandnongovernmentalauthoritiestrytomaintaintheirgripontheconductofthosewhoaretheirsubjects.