Cyberminimalisme - BookWyrm

191 × 141 × 16 mm, 240 pages

French language

Published Feb. 7, 2019 by Éditions du Seuil.

ISBN:: 978-2-02-140261-2

(1 review)

Nous ne sommes pas condamnés à crouler sous les datas et à obéir à des logiciels.

La vie numérisée qui s’impose de plus en plus à nous porte gravement atteinte à l’environnement ; des multinationales high‑tech pratiquent le vol de données et la captation d’attention ; nos capacités naturelles d’orientation, de mémoire ou d’empathie sont affectées. Face à ce projet de société digitale peu humaniste, le cyberminimalisme propose une reconquête de notre pouvoir de décision en tant qu’humains et citoyens face aux machines.

Au travail, en famille, entre amis, pour nos loisirs ou dans le choix de nos équipements, l’auteure préconise un mode de vie moins numérisé. Le cyberminimalisme n’est pas la cyberabstinence, c’est une reprise de contrôle, tantôt par l’évitement numérique, tantôt par la maîtrise informatique. Préparez‑vous à acheter du numérique d’occasion, à adopter des logiciels libres, à profiter de la vie sans poster sur les réseaux sociaux, à …

Nous ne sommes pas condamnés à crouler sous les datas et à obéir à des logiciels.

La vie numérisée qui s’impose de plus en plus à nous porte gravement atteinte à l’environnement ; des multinationales high‑tech pratiquent le vol de données et la captation d’attention ; nos capacités naturelles d’orientation, de mémoire ou d’empathie sont affectées. Face à ce projet de société digitale peu humaniste, le cyberminimalisme propose une reconquête de notre pouvoir de décision en tant qu’humains et citoyens face aux machines.

Au travail, en famille, entre amis, pour nos loisirs ou dans le choix de nos équipements, l’auteure préconise un mode de vie moins numérisé. Le cyberminimalisme n’est pas la cyberabstinence, c’est une reprise de contrôle, tantôt par l’évitement numérique, tantôt par la maîtrise informatique. Préparez‑vous à acheter du numérique d’occasion, à adopter des logiciels libres, à profiter de la vie sans poster sur les réseaux sociaux, à agrandir votre zone non numérique. Et comme la liberté se construit dès l’enfance : pas de téléphone portable avant 15 ans !

(source : Éditions du Seuil)

1 edition

Daan Wynen reviewed Cyberminimalisme by Karine Mauvilly

Putting the responsibility on the individual

2 stars

I picked this up on a weekend get-away, hoping it might help me with what I can only describe as "technology burn-out", a feeling that even though I know I loved and still love technology, I just can't be around it at the moment, yet I also can't not be. Sadly, this book was a huge disappointment. I'll give it 2 stars because even though I was infuriated by what was being written, I read this very quickly and that doesn't happen often for me. The problem I have with the author's approach is that it proposes the equivalent approach to "taking responsibility for your carbon footprint", i.e. putting the responsibility on the individual, when the problem is clearly systemic and won't be solved by individual rebellion. I'll not claim that the author is oblivious to this, and there were small moments of "hey let's change how things are done …

I picked this up on a weekend get-away, hoping it might help me with what I can only describe as "technology burn-out", a feeling that even though I know I loved and still love technology, I just can't be around it at the moment, yet I also can't not be. Sadly, this book was a huge disappointment. I'll give it 2 stars because even though I was infuriated by what was being written, I read this very quickly and that doesn't happen often for me. The problem I have with the author's approach is that it proposes the equivalent approach to "taking responsibility for your carbon footprint", i.e. putting the responsibility on the individual, when the problem is clearly systemic and won't be solved by individual rebellion. I'll not claim that the author is oblivious to this, and there were small moments of "hey let's change how things are done beyond myself" but they were few and the majority was advice for what I'd favourably call "digital self-defence".

And there were some genuine things I took from this, like just the simple reminder to leave the freaking phone at home when I won't need it, to be able to truly focus on what I'm doing. Same goes for advice on ad-blockers, refusing to participate in amazon's and airbnb's rating systems etc. Sound advice, and maybe for some a book is the right vehicle for it. Other advice like "re-discover the joy of keeping a paper agenda" is simply laughable for someone who has even the occasional zoom conference. I want to use technology, I just want it to serve my best interest. If I currently have to have dozens of meetings per week, then I absolutely want a computer to do the majority of the scheduling tedium.

So, really not what I wanted. I would recommend two books in its stead: "How to do nothing" by Jenny Odell has a much more philosophic (if meandering and less practical) approach to rebellion against non-human centric systems. And "Les besoins artificiels" by Razmig Keucheyan which I picked up shortly after "Cyberminimalisme" looks at consumerism (not specific to IT) from a more political (marxist, really) perspective.