From the Golem to Freedom

An exploration of how human beings relate to contemporary information technology, with a particular focus on social media. This book provides a portrait of the individual user in the midst of an online environment, illuminated by concepts from Judaism and Christianity, as well as from the secular philosophical traditions inspired by religion. It argues that the religious tradition can be invoked to describe both the freedom and unfreedom of the user of information technology. We currently live in a time of techno-totalitarianism in the making, characterised by pervasive structures of mastery and servitude, surveillance, attention-grabbing and attention-seeking, transgression, and loss of freedom. To illuminate how individuals may relate to technology in the midst of this totalitarianism, the author invokes the figure and legend of the golem from Jewish mysticism. Such religious traditions can shed light on an alternative to our present predicament of unfreedom through information technology, while at the same time remaining engaged with this technology. Such an alternative can be envisioned through the theological-philosophical concept of nothingness. Nothingness can be experienced and contemplated in the particular states, specific to the online world, of burnout, boredom and anxiety. The book's contention is that nothingness can be a source of freedom, opening up a free relationship for us with the essence of information technology.An interdisciplinary exposition of social media and online experience viewed which will be of interest to researchers and students in the social sciences, theology, religious studies, and the philosophy of technology.