A combative, energetic and visceral analysis of the digital entertainment industry and its impact on political change; from the smartphone to social media, pornography to football, streaming to NFTs and more: the realm of the Online has placed us on a path of imminent social collapse. Making his debut, Tim Johnston guides us through a political and social minefield as he dissects, through pop culture and current events, the impact of digital entertainment on our humanity and, consequently, political and social change. A ruthless attack and a fundamental critique of the internet's control over our lives and political future, Johnston systematically eviscerates the technological status quo, otherwise known as, "society-on-demand."
-
It's often said our challenge for a better world is political.
And yet, the challenges we face cannot be defeated on an individual basis so long as the realm of the Online, through digital entertainment, is seen as preferable to the physical society in which we live. Expecting millions to demand change when apathy is god and escape is heaven is like trying to fit a camel through the lens of an iPhone.
The challenges of society-on-demand are pervasive, systemic and accepted; presented as normal, even essential, parts of everyday life.
Consequently, we are engaged in nothing less than a war on our selves; to reclaim our humanity from the rubble of indifference through a fundamental reshaping of values.
The digital entertainment industry has established a crisis of impotence; a culture of apathy; through personal devices and the content they provide. Society is witnessing a fundamental shift in how we perceive ourselves and each other, disproportionately affecting Gen Z and Millennials, who face serious mental health crises and broken relationships through the prioritisation of an online existence. We need a political and technological reformation; one which restores our perceptions of ourselves, of each other and the world around us. Without this, the Left has no ideological basis, for it has no recognition, understanding, or prioritisation of reality.
This is about stripping away the weeds of a pervasive digital entertainment industry - the default of an online existence - to rehumanise ourselves and, consequently, achieve the political changes we need.
This book is not a battle plan. But it is an assessment - an analysis - of the enemy's defences. It is a blueprint of the fortress we need to know and understand: a tool of distraction and oppression threatening social relations and, without exaggeration, the viability of our existence. Without this understanding, we cannot hope to regain our lives from the tools that oppress us, nor reuse them for the foundational changes we need: and that means exposing the damage our online lives - and the systems behind them - have caused.
-
A seminal and foundational work, Society-on-Demand is a radical and necessary contribution to modern political thought; a call to arms in our own lives to free ourselves form the oppression of our devices and divert our energies elsewhere, for the sake of our mental health, relationships and radical political change.
