Food For Thought

JULIE HOOMANS & MAYOWA NICHOLAS FOR WSJ MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2016

"It is fashionable to suggest that cyber space is some island of the blessed. Where people are free to indulge and express their individuality. This is not true, I have seen many people spill out their emotions, their guts, online and I did so myself until I began to see I had commodified myself. Commodification means you turn something into a product that has a money value. In the 19th century commodities were made in factories by workers who were mostly exploited. But I created my interior thoughts as commodities for the corporations who owned the board that I was posting to, and then that commodity was then sold onto other consumer entities as entertainment. Cyberspce is a black hole, it absorbs energy and personality and then re-presents it as emotional spectacle. It is done by businesses that commodify human interaction and emotion. And we are getting lost in the spectacle." - Carmen Hermosillo