{{Short description|Dystopian society arising due to technology}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} [[File:Smart city (dystopia) (6819117093).jpg|thumb|Smart city dystopia, a graffiti on a wall in Lapa, Rio de Janeiro]] '''Digital dystopia''', '''cyber dystopia''' or '''algorithmic dystopia''' refers to an alternate future or present in which digitized technologies or algorithms have caused major societal disruption.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-02-06|title=Digital Dystopia|url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/digital-dystopia|access-date=2020-11-20|website=American Scientist|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hudson |first1=Laura |title=If you want to know how we ended up in a cyber dystopia, read Ready Player One |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/19/17250892/ready-player-one-book-facebook-internet-dystopia |access-date=29 October 2021 |work=The Verge |date=19 April 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kockelman |first1=Paul |title=The Epistemic and Performative Dynamics of Machine Learning Praxis |journal=Signs and Society |date=March 2020 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=319–355 |doi=10.1086/708249 |language=en |issn=2326-4489|doi-access=free }}</ref> It refers to dystopian narratives of technologies influencing social, economic, and political structures, and its diverse set of components includes virtual reality, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous connectivity, ubiquitous surveillance, and social networks.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Pilkington|first=Ed|date=2019-10-14|title=Digital dystopia: how algorithms punish the poor|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/14/automating-poverty-algorithms-punish-poor|access-date=2020-11-20|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In popular culture, technological dystopias often are about or depict mass loss of privacy due to technological innovation and social control. They feature heightened socio-political issues like social fragmentation, intensified consumerism, dehumanization, and mass human migrations.
==Origins== In 1998, "digital dystopia" was used to describe negative effects of multichannel television on society.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Granville |title=New media: Digital dystopia |journal=Index on Censorship |date=1 July 1998 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=186–192 |doi=10.1080/03064229808536405 |s2cid=220984100 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03064229808536405?journalCode=rioc20 |access-date=1 November 2021 |issn=0306-4220|url-access=subscription }}</ref> "Cyber-dystopia" was coined in 1998 in connection with cyber-punk literature.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pencak |first1=William |title=Lyres against the Law: Orpheus as Cyberpunk Outlaw |journal=Legal Studies Forum |date=1999 |volume=23 |pages=293 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/lstf23&div=23&id=&page= |access-date=1 November 2021}}</ref>
One of the earliest mentions is on 2004 when an academic and blogger was expelled for commenting on how the Sims Online Computer game based in the city of Alphaville had become a digital dystopia controlled by "president" Donald Meacham and corrupt faction of robot nobles had become a ''digital dystopia'' with crime, cyber-sex prostitution and general civic chaos. Digital experimentation of the elements of cyberspace became extremely invasive and took on the appearance of anarchy in Alphaville.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-10-22|title=Is a 'real' Truman show a good idea?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2004/oct/22/isarealtruma|access-date=2020-11-20|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>
In August 2007, David Nye presented the idea of cyber-dystopia, which envisions a world made worse by technological advancements.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nye |first=David E. |date=August 2007 |title=Technology Matters: Questions to Live With |url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/technology-matters |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=9780262640671 |access-date=April 27, 2014 }}</ref> Cyber-dystopian principles focus on the individual losing control, becoming dependent and being unable to stop change.
Nancy Baym shows a cyber-dystopia negatively effect of a cyber-dystopia in social interactions as it says new media will take people away from their intimate relationships, as they ''substitute'' mediated relationships or even media use itself for face to face engagement".<ref name="Baym">{{cite book|last=Baym|first=Nancy K.|url=http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745643328|title=Personal Connections in the Digital Age|date=Apr 2010|publisher=Polity|isbn=9780745643311|access-date=April 27, 2014}}</ref>{{rp|36}}
The dystopian voices of Andrew Keen, Jaron Lanier, and Nicholas Carr tell society as a whole could sacrifice our humanity to the cult of cyber-utopianism. In particular, Lanier describes it as "an apocalypse of self-abdication" and that "consciousness is attempting to will itself out of existence";<ref name="Lanier 15">{{cite book|last=Lanier|first=Jaron|title=You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto|date=February 2011|publisher=Vintage|isbn=978-0307389978|page=15}}<!--|accessdate=November 15, 2014 --></ref> warning that by emphasising the majority or crowd, we are de-emphasising individuality. Similarly, Keen and Carr write that there is a dangerous mob mentality that dominates the internet; since, rather than creating more democracy, the internet is empowering the rule of the mob. Instead of achieving social equality or utopianism, the internet has created a "selfie-centered"<ref>{{cite book |last=Keen |first=Andrew |date=January 2015 |title=The Internet Is Not the Answer |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-0802123138 }}<!--|accessdate=November 15, 2014 --></ref> culture of voyeurism and narcissism.
John Naughton, writing for ''The Guardian'', described Aldous Huxley, the author of ''Brave New World'', as the prophet of digital dystopia.{{sfn|Naughton|2013}}
==See also== * Cyberpunk * Digital sublime
==Further reading== * {{Cite web|last=Tirole|first=Jean|date=8 January 2020|title=Digital Dystopia |url=https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/TSE/images/conference/Digital_conf_2020/tirole_digital_dystopia_080120.pdf|access-date=18 December 2020}}
==References== {{Reflist|refs=}} *{{Cite web|last=Naughton|first=John|date=22 November 2013|title=Aldous Huxley: the prophet of our brave new digital dystopia|website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/22/aldous-huxley-prophet-dystopia-cs-lewis|access-date=9 July 2021}}
==External links== *{{Commonscatinline|Digital dystopia}}
Category:Deviance (sociology) * Category:Cyberspace Category:Social theories Category:Technophobia