Symone Williams- Davis Chapter 6

While reading Chapter 6 of Techgnosis, I became more familiar with concept of mystifying technology. In the previous chapters of 4 and 5, I grew increasingly curious about the idea detaching from oneself to explore other planes. Because LSD is heavily associated with counterculture, I can see why Davis goes into the chapter 6 topic of communication networks being a counterculture within themselves and computers "literally being psychedelic" because they manifest the mind.
This chapter was the most chronological so far. I found that interesting because Davis really outlines the digital countercultures to set up the concept of Corporate cyberdelia. I do agree with the loose metaphor of LSD being put in the water with computers "turning everyone" and dosing the population. Even within my lifetime,  there has been a shift in how computers dose the population,With the invention of things like smartwatches, some of us even have little computers on our wrist that we wear. I see computer carrying as a caffeine tolerance  in terms of the amount of computers dosing us. For example, the first time you drink coffee, the caffeine gets to you really fast and easily; you need a smaller dose to receive energy. Eventually, you become so tolerant of coffee that you need it to start the day. The same is for the computer dosage. You first start by learning the ropes of carrying computers. My first attachment was a Tamagatchi; a toy I took care of but eventually lost interest in. This started my tolerance for constantly carrying a computer,and the ecstasy  that is associated with such. Now, I'm at the point where I haven't left my home without my phone in years and I need it to start and get through my day.
Lasty, I related  Davis' concept of "parasitic programs that "return to their masters with information" (pg 196) to the Zuckerberg hearing. I feel that this data tracking we subscribe to without necessarily thinking about how that information could be used is the epitome of how communicative ecstasy will always triumph our fear of our information being used in ways we don't want it to be. The whole Facebook case is very relevant to this chapter because  Facebook was able to mystify itself so much and distance itself what we consider mechinal into magic. Many didn't consider these parastic programs within Facebook and more so the magic of being able to post and see what others are doing. I feel that social network brands have to gametize and mystify themselves to be successful. The mysticism within cyberspace drives their success because people aren't consistently aware of the amount of information that is collected about them, and they aren't constantly afraid of social networks because they are magical.

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