Right now we live in a world filled with choices. We don't have to tell others where we are or what we are upto, but we tell our machines to do so for us anyway. At a whim, if you will. A party or a special city.
Now imagine a world, where we don't have a choice, where all of us have to report our coordinates and actions and feelings through the machines at our disposal. Communication and networking is one thing. Being institutionally mandated to be made visible at all times, not so much.
Our present is the means to this eventuality. Our transparent present and this Orwellian future are not too far apart.
what the difference between good BTL marketing and institutionally mandated?
ReplyDeletethe first initiates enthusiasm, the latter initiates resistance.
the result is largely the same
I agree with with KOTa. Right now we live in the world of institutionally crafted and often illusory choices. Your identity is pretty much the product of social definitions and categories. And there comes the magic of marketing, where by consuming one is promised the power of self-definition and the choice of a "life style". The kind of choice that stripes off and crushes the remains of our individuality.
ReplyDeleteYes, socially "constructed" or "created" , we still do have choices. They may not be independent or absolutely untainted choices, but we can choose to say yes or no. I am talking about an dystopian situation not very different from the picture Mr. Orwell painted for us. When we don't even have a choice. Perhaps it is an extension of our present reality where we ostensibly have choices. But atleast today I can choose to switch off my phone and my internet at will. But if tomorrow I am mandated to be "logged on" eternally, I fathom that to be far worse than the marketing driven reality we have today.
ReplyDelete