The Open Prison of the Big Data Revolution: False Consciousness, Faustian Bargains, and Digital Entrapment

IF 5 3区 管理学 Q1 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE
Ojelanki Ngwenyama, Frantz Rowe, Stefan Klein, Helle Zinner Henriksen
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although some scholars raise alarm about societal harm emerging from Big Data practices, critical social theory (CST) Information Systems research on the structures and dynamics driving Big Data practices is rare. In this research commentary, we interrogate how tech firms use social practices and platform design to strategically manipulate individuals into accepting datafication and data assetization that accrue positive data network effects for themselves and mostly negative data network effects (economic loss, social and privacy harm) for individuals. We draw on the ideas of Heidegger and Marcuse to critically question the Big Data paradigm in order to develop better understanding of the social implications for individuals and society. Using the concepts of false consciousness, digital entrapment, and Faustian bargains, we critically inquire into the Big Data practices that keep us tethered to digital platforms. Specifically, we interrogate sociomaterial structures that socially condition individuals into a digital habitus and to identify themselves as homo digitalis, who view all their “relations” (social and economic) as digital. This social conditioning reproduces a false consciousness that constricts our worldview, undermines our rational choices, and enables the risky compromises we make with tech companies that manipulate and exploit us with their increasingly oppressive Big Data practices and related dark patterns. We critically analyze the case of Microsoft Viva to provide an illustration of how mundane digital tools can condition our reality and entrap us into an open prison. We argue that if we do not critically interrogate our false consciousness of the digital and understand how digital giants colonize our social systems by structurally embedding Big Data practices, we will continue to be susceptible to manipulation and digital entrapment. Ongoing risky compromises with tech firms will erode the very foundations of the “good life,” freedom, liberty, and personal privacy, and they will institutionalize the open prison. The CST explanation we propose and the research agenda we outline are meant to encourage research into solutions to the digital entrapment problem. History: Suprateek Sarker, Senior Editor; Robert Gregory, Associate Editor. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2020.0588 .
大数据革命的开放监狱:虚假意识、浮士德式交易和数字陷阱
尽管一些学者对大数据实践带来的社会危害提出了警告,但关于驱动大数据实践的结构和动态的批判性社会理论(CST)信息系统研究却很少。在这篇研究评论中,我们探讨了科技公司如何利用社会实践和平台设计来战略性地操纵个人接受数据化和数据资产化,这些数据化和数据资产化对他们自己产生了积极的数据网络效应,而对个人产生了消极的数据网络效应(经济损失、社会和隐私损害)。我们借鉴海德格尔和马尔库塞的思想,批判性地质疑大数据范式,以便更好地理解个人和社会的社会含义。利用虚假意识、数字陷阱和浮士德式交易的概念,我们批判性地探究了将我们束缚在数字平台上的大数据实践。具体来说,我们调查了社会物质结构,这些社会物质结构使个人形成数字习惯,并将自己定位为数字人,他们将所有的“关系”(社会和经济)视为数字。这种社会条件反射再现了一种错误的意识,它限制了我们的世界观,破坏了我们的理性选择,并使我们能够与科技公司做出危险的妥协,这些科技公司通过其日益压抑的大数据实践和相关的黑暗模式操纵和利用我们。我们批判性地分析了微软Viva的案例,以说明平凡的数字工具如何制约我们的现实,并将我们困在一个开放的监狱里。我们认为,如果我们不批判性地审视我们对数字的错误意识,并理解数字巨头如何通过结构性地嵌入大数据实践来殖民我们的社会系统,我们将继续容易受到操纵和数字陷阱的影响。与科技公司持续进行的冒险妥协将侵蚀“美好生活”、自由、自由和个人隐私的基础,并将使开放式监狱制度化。我们提出的CST解释和我们概述的研究议程旨在鼓励对数字陷阱问题解决方案的研究。历史:Suprateek Sarker,高级编辑;副主编罗伯特·格雷戈里。补充材料:在线附录可在https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2020.0588上获得。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
9.10
自引率
8.20%
发文量
120
期刊介绍: ISR (Information Systems Research) is a journal of INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Information Systems Research is a leading international journal of theory, research, and intellectual development, focused on information systems in organizations, institutions, the economy, and society.
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