Welcome to the surveillance and attention economies, the “modernity” that the author describes without naming. The article, near the end, has some solid advice

Welcome to the surveillance and attention economies, the “modernity” that the author describes without naming. The article, near the end, has some solid advice: spend more time walking (preferably in nature) and try to use your phone less. The large tech companies’ business depends on collecting data on every aspect of our lives, and at scale and targeted/individualized to each person, seeks to control our actions since the easiest way to predict a consumer’s actions is to actually influence them. Companies like Google and Facebook may act as if collecting all data on people is inevitable, but it may not be, if enough of us just say “no” and push back as much as we can and still thrive in modern times.