The One You Feed The Hidden Costs of Technology and Our Search for Selfhood with Vauhini Vara
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Sep 2, 2025 Vauhini Vara, author of 'Searches, Selfhood in the Digital Age', dives into the intricate relationship between technology and identity. She discusses how technology can be both a beneficial lifeline and a trap, influencing our self-perception. Vauhini explores the ethical implications of our reliance on major tech companies and the impact of algorithms on communication. Personal stories intertwine with broader themes, such as navigating grief, highlighting technology's role in shaping meaningful human connections.
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Technology: Lifeline And Trap
- Technology functions as both a lifeline and a trap, offering convenience while exploiting attention and labor.
- Vauhini Vara frames modern tools as deeply ambiguous, producing benefits that are inseparable from costs.
Five-Day Amazon Boycott
- Eric recounts swearing off Amazon after a broken blender and returning within five days, feeling a little ashamed.
- The story illustrates how convenience and entrenched services pull us back despite moral objections.
Usefulness Requires Exploitation
- The usefulness of products like Amazon depends on exploitative labor practices and supply chains.
- Vara argues benefits and harms are intertwined and often inseparable in practice.
