Ulises Ali Mejias's Books

Off the Network

Disrupting the Digital World

By: Ulises Ali Mejias

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Off the Network

Disrupting the Digital World

By: Ulises Ali Mejias

The digital world profoundly shapes how we work and consume and also how we play, socialize, create identities, and engage in politics and civic life. Indeed, we are so enmeshed in digital networks—from social media to cell phones—that it is hard to conceive of them from the outside or to imagine an alternative, let alone defy their seemingly inescapable power and logic. Yes, it is (sort of) possible to quit Facebook. But is it possible to disconnect from the digital network—and why might we want to? Off the Network is a fresh and authoritative examination of how the hidden logic of the Internet, social media, and the digital network is changing users’ understanding of the world—and why that should worry us. Ulises Ali Mejias also suggests how we might begin to rethink the logic of the network and question its ascendancy. Touted as consensual, inclusive, and pleasurable, the digital network is also, Mejias says, monopolizing and threatening in its capacity to determine, commodify, and commercialize so many aspects of our lives. He shows how the network broadens participation yet also exacerbates disparity—and how it excludes more of society than it includes. Uniquely, Mejias makes the case that it is not only necessary to challenge the privatized and commercialized modes of social and civic life offered by corporate-controlled spaces such as Facebook and Twitter, but that such confrontations can be mounted from both within and outside the network. The result is an uncompromising, sophisticated, and accessible critique of the digital world that increasingly dominates our lives.

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Page Count

267

Publisher

U of Minnesota Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0816684545

ISBN 13

9780816684540

Data Grab

The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back

By: Ulises Ali Mejias,Nick Couldry

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Data Grab

The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back

By: Ulises Ali Mejias,Nick Couldry

In the present day, Big Tech is extracting resources from us, transferring and centralizing resources from people to companies. These companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources--our data--exploiting our labor and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations, and discriminate against us. These companies tell us this is for our own good, to build innovation and develop new technology. But in fact every time we unthinkingly click "Accept" on a set of Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to be kept indefinitely, repackaged by companies to control and exploit us for their own profit. Each chapter of respected technology scholars Ulises Mejias and Nick Couldry's compelling book opens with a story of an ordinary person going about their life until they come up against technology taking their data: a migrant trying to reach Europe where drones are patrolling borders, a woman in the Philippines working for a software company that takes screenshots of her monitor, a food delivery driver in a Chinese city racing against an algorithm. All of these people could be us; the story of what tech companies are doing is a global story that is impossible to escape. Mejias and Couldry explain why postindustrial capitalism cannot be understood without colonialism, and why race is a critical factor in who benefits from data colonialism, just as it was for historic colonialism. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers and founders of the concept of data colonialism reveal how history can help us understand the emerging future--and how we can fight back"--

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Page Count

314

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226832309

ISBN 13

9780226832302

The Costs of Connection

How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

By: Nick Couldry,Ulises A. Mejias

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The Costs of Connection

How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

By: Nick Couldry,Ulises A. Mejias

Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives—our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally—and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.

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Page Count

368

Publisher

Stanford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1503609758

ISBN 13

9781503609754

The Costs of Connection

How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

By: Nick Couldry,Ulises A. Mejias

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The Costs of Connection

How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

By: Nick Couldry,Ulises A. Mejias

The driving force behind The Costs of Connection is the idea that something big is happening with data, a new phase of colonial extraction that is annexing human life to capitalism and in the process building a new social economic order -- one that must be resisted if human autonomy is to be protected.

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Page Count

352

Publisher

Culture and Economic Life

Published Date

ISBN 10

150360974X

ISBN 13

9781503609747

Book's by Ulises Ali Mejias

Off the Network

Off the Network

Data Grab

Data Grab

The Costs of Connection

The Costs of Connection

The Costs of Connection

The Costs of Connection

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