digital burnout
Digital Burnout: Byung-Chul Han and the Crisis of Modern Life
In a world buzzing with notifications, likes, and endless streams of information, a South Korean philosopher named Byung-Chul Han sounds the alarm on the ills of the digital age. Han warns that our smartphones have become invisible prisons, our social media feeds a marketplace of vanity, and our obsession with data a threat to true meaning.
Work, Work, Work – Until We Collapse
Han's concept of the "Burnout Society" paints a grim picture of our modern existence. Pushed to relentlessly optimize and produce, we have, paradoxically, become exhausted by our own alleged freedom. He writes, "The smartphone is a mobile labour camp in which we voluntarily intern ourselves.” The promise of technology as a tool for liberation has instead led to new forms of self-exploitation.
The End of Secrets, the End of Ourselves
In the realm of social media and big data, Han warns of a "Transparency Society." Our every move, every click, is potentially recorded, analyzed, and sold. This erodes our interior lives and strips away the mystery that makes us unique. We trade our privacy for the fleeting dopamine hit of a new like. "Social media," he observes, "is pornographic self-presentation or self-promotion."
Lost in the Digital Echo Chamber
While we're busier than ever, Han believes we have become spiritually poorer. Digital platforms crave data, not the kind of deep narratives that give our lives meaning. The result, he says, is a world filled with noise, drowning out true contemplation: "In digital late modernity, we conceal the nakedness—the absence of meaning in our lives—by constantly posting, liking, and sharing. The noise of communication and information is supposed to ensure that life’s terrifying vacuity remains hidden.”
Should We Smash Our Smartphones?
Byung-Chul Han isn't suggesting we go off the grid entirely. Instead, he advocates for a more mindful use of technology and a reconnection with what he calls "deep time," the space necessary for meaningful reflection and the formation of narratives that define us and bind us together. Han challenges us to ask ourselves difficult questions: Is relentless 'progress' always desirable? Can we resist the tyranny of likes and notifications?
It's a call to reclaim our humanity in an age that seems designed to chip away at it.
