Robert Green

Dreaming of a Sustainable Knowledge Framework: Digital Consumption and the Intersectionality of Socio-Economic Forces, Human Behavior, and Ecological Crises

Robert Green (University of Lausanne)

In several ways, consumption, in its multiple connotative forms today, is a phenomenon that strongly relates to the future health of the planet. More specifically, an intersectional crossroads of potentially disastrous socio-economic repercussions can be evidenced by the
ways many throughout the world, often referred to as ‘users,’ consume in digital contexts through excessive (and often addictive) means without fully comprehending the profound impacts their active engagement with digital technologies has with achieving a higher quality of life and well-being for all. In short, the effects of digital consumption resonate among other serious issues such as inequality, ecological responsibility, education, and human health in ways that are not frequently acknowledged or emphasized when discussing those issues in public. Even more troubling are notions that exponentially increasing digital infrastructure and screen contact at unprecedented levels will somehow solve all the problems humanity currently faces, which further underscores a severe lack of awareness regarding how many of the technologies hailed today are contributing to other human disparities and global crises. Drawing attention to these realities and the intersectionality of human behavior with products and services is necessary if the world tomorrow is going to be prosperous for the majority instead of only a handful of the monetarily wealthiest individuals.

 

Last updated on April 23rd, 2024

SNSF project 100015_204481

@VLS@veganism.social | VeganLiteraryStudies | @veganliterarystudies |