Everyday Data Cultures

The AI revolution can seem powerful and unstoppable, extracting data from every aspect of our daily lives and subjecting us to unparalleled surveillance and control. But at ground level, even the most advanced ‘smart’ technologies are not as smart or as all-powerful as either their corporate owners or their critics would have us believe. Everyday life is messy, imperfect, and full of friction - and so too are everyday data cultures.

Covering topics ranging from gig worker activism, wellness tracking with sex toys, and TikTokers’ manipulation of the platform’s algorithm, this lively and empirically grounded book tells the story of how ordinary people are playing a significant role in cultivating, shaping, resisting, and negotiating the datafication of society. The book establishes a new theoretical framework for understanding the ordinary experiences and political possibilities of data and automation in everyday life. Considering alternative data futures, it offers guidance on the ethical responsibilities we share as we learn to live together with data-driven machines.

Everyday Data Cultures is essential reading for students and researchers in digital media and communication, as well as for anyone interested in understanding and reshaping the role of data and AI in society.