I think that Ullmen was trying to say that the internet, and
marketing as well, are individualizing people and making people think that they
are the only ones who are important. The commercialization, according to
Ullman, has “isolated the individual within a sea of economic activity” and
that “the world really does revolve around you.” While seeing this isolation
and individualization could be seen as a negative and selfish idea, I like to
think otherwise.
Technology
has made us feel like we have complete control and that we are important. With
all of the self-harm and body image issues that goes on in people’s minds today
– typically a result of the “idealization” marketing – I think that the knowledge
that you actually could change the world and that you do have a power over your
own life. Just like what she Ullman says about technology being an “enabling
technology” – a technical breakthrough that takes a difficult task and makes it
suddenly doable, easy – this is a positive thing that she thinks is negative.
