How, and to what extent, do “invisibilia” constrain or otherwise influence individuals?
In “Always Be Optimizing,” Tolentino presents her optimized women as a paradox; she is both “always optimizing,” actively believing herself to the be the “architect” of her own life (66), but also passively, “preemptively controlled”(64). Foer also engages with this dilemma, starting with Mark Zuckerberg’s fascination with hackers that turns into a “war on free will,” as the title suggests.
Foer specifically describes the algorithm, “a series of precise steps that can be followed mindlessly” (109) as “invisibilia” that impact Facebook’s users (112). Though she does not use the language of algorithms or depict optimization as invisible, Tolentino describes women “trapped at the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy” (91) and even, perhaps unexpectedly, mainstream feminism (81).
For your second essay, use Tolentino and Foer’s texts to explore the following question: How, and to what extent, do “invisibilia” constrain or otherwise influence individuals?
Thinking Questions:
How are we, or the subjects described the authors, trapped by algorithms, patriarchy, and/or capitalism?
What types of decisions and activities do Tolentino and Foer describe as influenced, encouraged, and restricted by these structures/systems in their texts?
What are the differences between systems like algorithms and structures like capitalism?
What are the similarities between these systems and structures- how do they mutually reinforce one another? How do these particular systems and structures—algorithms, patriarchy, and capitalism—reinforce each other?
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