ENGL 277: Being Human in the Digital Age
Over the last few decades a few mega-companies – Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft – have gained unprecedented levels of global power, while complicating the ideas of privacy and individual human agency. Fitbits, mobile phones, computers, databases, surveillance cameras, drones, and satellites now track every part of our lives. We broadcast ourselves through Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok; manage our friends on Facebook; use Signal, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Snapchat to communicate. We search the world via Google, while Amazon Prime delivers whatever we need to our doorstep. We talk to Siri and Alexa, ask Tinder and Bumble to create our love lives, then turn to “the dark web” to fulfill our most extreme desires. What does it mean to be alive today – at this unique historical moment when hidden, proprietary algorithms group us together, separate us, and predict every aspect of our behavior? Do surveillance, disinformation, social media, and the Internet of Things really control our knowledge, passions, and political freedoms? How does the internet – in ways overt and covert – determine ideas of gender, race, sexuality, nation, and numerous related topics? Is there anything left of “being human”? This course will address such questions by interrogating the new and emerging technologies and practices of the companies that shape the modern world. We will inform our work through assigned readings, vigorous debate, critical reflection, oral presentations, and formal writing; students will read fiction, watch films, and engage with diverse news articles.