Hungry Ghosts in the Machine: Digital Capitalism and the Search for Self

Hungry Ghosts in the Machine: Digital Capitalism and the Search for Self examines the ways in which social and other digital media utilize nostalgia to heighten anxiety, depression and alienation while offering fleeting cures which only ultimately lead to a cycle of longing and, at most, only temporary satiation. It is argued that wellbeing and spiritual practice freed of the compulsive aspect of social media use might form a useful role in a wider socialist movement. Digital era addiction, psychedelics, AI and memes meet Adorno, Deleuze, Fisher, Maté, Roderick, Sontag, Zizek, The Beatles and Metallica in Watson’s characteristically cornucopian dive into the ills of 21st century living and dying.