[Air-L] Sad by Design

[Geert Lovink]

Dear air-l members, 

I am proud to present you my next essay called Sad by Design, published by the web magazine Eurozine in Vienna: https://www.eurozine.com/sad-by-design/ <https://www.eurozine.com/sad-by-design/>. It is the title chapter of my next book, which comes out over the next couple of months in Italian (UBI), English (Pluto Press), Spanish and German.

In this essay I am investigating the many dimensions of ‘technological sadness’. I quickly realized there are many, conflicting, emotions. I hesitate to look at the entire world from the lense of sadness this or sadness that--but it is a strong angle nontheless. I hope you enjoy my attempt to overcome easy positions of refusal of and contempt of social media. At our Institute of Network Cultures we’re devoted to social media alternatives for many years now (Unlike Us was founded in 2011). This political position, however, should not stop us from investigating the messy emotional world of the online billions. Here's a fragment. 

Best from Geert

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"In the online context, sadness appears as a short moment of indecisiveness, a flash that opens up the possibility of a reflection. The frequently used ‘sad’ label is a vehicle, a strange attractor to enter the liquid mess called social media. Sadness is a container. Each and every situation can potentially be qualified as ‘sad’. Through this mild form of suffering, we enter the blues of being in the world. When something’s sad, things around it become grey. You trust the machine because you feel you’re in control of it. You want to go from zero to hero. But then your propped-up ego implodes and the failure of self-esteem becomes apparent again. The price of self-control in an age of instant gratification is high. We long to revolt against the restless zombie inside us, but we don’t know how. Our psychic armour is thin and eroded from within, open to ‘behavioural modifications’. Sadness arises at the point we’re exhausted by the online world. After yet another app session in which we failed to make a date, purchased a ticket and did a quick round of videos, the post-dopamine mood hits us hard. The sheer busyness and self-importance of the world makes you feel joyless. After a dive into the network we’re drained and feel socially awkward. The swiping finger is tired and we have to stop."