Resisting Big Tech: The Personalized Is Political

How does a smartphone change our experience of walking in a city? How does Google change how we learn? And how do matching algorithms change how we date? Engaging these and other questions, this open access book analyzes the transformation of everyday life in the Big Tech era.

Although movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter would not have happened in the way they did without corporate social media platforms, these platforms are not designed for emancipation, but to maximize user engagement and data extraction. This book contends that in the face of this reality, we need to set clear boundaries to Big Tech and to remain vigilant for the ways in which corporate power affects and accelerates life, burning out people and the planet.

Focusing on four key settings - home, city, education and love - it examines the way in which modern understandings of individuality, privacy, integrity, and humanity have changed in the age of Big Tech.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the European Research Council.