Things are increasingly receding into the background of our attention. The present hyperinflation and proliferation of things are precisely a sign of an increasing indifference towards them. We are obsessed not with things but with information and data. We now consume more information than things. We are literally becoming intoxicated with communication. Libidinal energy is redirected from things to non-things. The result is infomania. We are all infomaniacs now. Object fetishism is probably a thing of the past. We are becoming information and data fetishists. There is now even talk of 'datasexuals' (2)
The infosphere is Janus-faced. It does give us more freedom, but at the same time it exposes us to more surveillance and control. Google presents the interconnected smart home of the future as an 'electronic orchestra' with the inhabitant as the 'conductor.' In truth, however, what the authors of this digital utopia describe is a smart prison. In a smart home, we are not autonomous conductors. Instead, we are conducted by various actors, even invisible actors that dictate the rhythm. We expose ourselves to a panoptical gaze. A smart bed fitted with various sensors continues the surveillance even during sleep. In the name of convenience, surveillance gradually creeps into everyday life. The informatons that free us from so much work turn out be efficient informants that surveil and control us. In this way, we become incarcerated in the infosphere (5).
In a world controlled by algorithms, the human being gradually loses the power to act, loses autonomy. The human being confronts a world that resists efforts at comprehension. He or she obeys algorithmic decisions, which lack transparency. Algorithms become black boxes. The world is lost in the deep layers of neuronal networks to which human beings have no access (5).
Information by itself does not illuminate the world. It can even have the opposite effect. From a certain point onwards, information does not inform - it deforms. We have long since crossed this threshold. The rapid advance of informational entropy, that is, of informational chaos, pushes us into a post-factual society. The distinction between true and false is erased. Information now circulates in a hyper-real space, without any reference to reality. After all, fake news is a kind of information, and one that is possibly even more effective than facts. What counts is short-term effect. Effectiveness replaces truth (5-6).
Han, Byung-Chul. Non-things. Polity Press, 2022.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Cohen, Josh. "The Winter of Civilization." Aeon (February 28, 2025) ["Byung-Chul Han’s relentless critiques of digital capitalism reveal how this suffocating system creates hollowed-out lives"]
Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society. Stanford University Press, 2015. ["Our competitive, service-oriented societies are taking a toll on the late-modern individual. Rather than improving life, multitasking, "user-friendly" technology, and the culture of convenience are producing disorders that range from depression to attention deficit disorder to borderline personality disorder. Byung-Chul Han interprets the spreading malaise as an inability to manage negative experiences in an age characterized by excessive positivity and the universal availability of people and goods. Stress and exhaustion are not just personal experiences, but social and historical phenomena as well. Denouncing a world in which every against-the-grain response can lead to further disempowerment, he draws on literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences to explore the stakes of sacrificing intermittent intellectual reflection for constant neural connection." Excerpt of the 1st chapter available from Stanford University Press]
---. The Crisis of Narration. Polity Press, 2024. ["Narratives produce the ties that bind us. They create community, eliminate contingency and anchor us in being. And yet in our contemporary information society, where everything has become arbitrary and random, storytelling becomes storyselling and narratives lose their binding force. Whereas narratives create community, storytelling brings forth only a fleeting community – the community of consumers. No amount of storytelling could recreate the fire around which humans gather to tell each other stories. That fire has long since burnt out. It has been replaced by the digital screen, which separates people rather than bringing them together. Through storytelling, capitalism appropriates narrative: stories sell. They are no longer a medium of shared experience. The inflation of storytelling betrays a need to cope with contingency, but storytelling is unable to transform the information society back into a stable narrative community. Rather, storytelling as storyselling is a pathological phenomenon of our age. Byung-Chul Han, one of the most perceptive cultural theorists of contemporary society, dissects this crisis with exceptional insight and flair."]
---. In the Swarm: Digital Prospects. MIT Press, 2017. ["A prominent German thinker argues that—contrary to “Twitter Revolution” cheerleading—digital communication is destroying political discourse and political action. The shitstorm represents an authentic phenomenon of digital communication.
Digital communication and social media have taken over our lives. In this contrarian reflection on digitized life, Byung-Chul Han counters the cheerleaders for Twitter revolutions and Facebook activism by arguing that digital communication is in fact responsible for the disintegration of community and public space and is slowly eroding any possibility for real political action and meaningful political discourse. In the predigital, analog era, by the time an angry letter to the editor had been composed, mailed, and received, the immediate agitation had passed. Today, digital communication enables instantaneous, impulsive reaction, meant to express and stir up outrage on the spot. “The shitstorm,” writes Han, ”represents an authentic phenomenon of digital communication.” Meanwhile, the public, the senders and receivers of these communications have become a digital swarm—not a mass, or a crowd, or Negri and Hardt's antiquated notion of a “multitude,” but a set of isolated individuals incapable of forming a “we,” incapable of calling dominant power relations into question, incapable of formulating a future because of an obsession with the present. The digital swarm is a fragmented entity that can focus on individual persons only in order to make them an object of scandal. Han, one of the most widely read philosophers in Europe today, describes a society in which information has overrun thought, in which the same algorithms are employed by Facebook, the stock market, and the intelligence services. Democracy is under threat because digital communication has made freedom and control indistinguishable. Big Brother has been succeeded by Big Data."]
---. Non-things. Polity, 2022. ["We no longer inhabit earth and dwell under the sky: these are being replaced by Google Earth and the Cloud. The terrestrial order is giving way to a digital order, the world of things is being replaced by a world of non-things - a constantly expanding 'infosphere' of information and communication which displaces objects and obliterates any stillness and calmness in our lives. Byung-Chul Han's critique of the infosphere highlights the price we are paying for our growing preoccupation with information and communication. Today we search for more information without gaining any real knowledge. We communicate constantly without participating in a community. We save masses of data without keeping track of our memories. We accumulate friends and followers without encountering other people. This is how information develops a form of life that has no stability or duration. And as we become increasingly absorbed in the infosphere, we lose touch with the magic of things which provide a stable environment for dwelling and give continuity to human life. The infosphere may seem to grant us new freedoms but it creates new forms of control too, and it cuts us off from the kind of freedom that is tied to acting in the world."]
---. The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Polity Press, 2022. ["Zen Buddhism is a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism that originated in China and is strongly focused on meditation. It is characteristically sceptical towards language and distrustful of conceptual thought, which explains why Zen Buddhist sayings are so enigmatic and succinct. But despite Zen Buddhism’s hostility towards theory and discourse, it is possible to reflect philosophically on Zen Buddhism and bring out its philosophical insights. In this short book, Byung-Chul Han seeks to unfold the philosophical force inherent in Zen Buddhism, delving into the foundations of Far Eastern thought to which Zen Buddhism is indebted. Han does this comparatively by confronting and contrasting the insights of Zen Buddhism with the philosophies of Plato, Leibniz, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger and others, showing that Zen Buddhism and Western philosophy have very different ways of understanding religion, subjectivity, emptiness, friendliness and death. This important work by one of the most widely read philosophers and cultural theorists of our time will be of great value to anyone interested in comparative philosophy and religion."]
---. Psycho-Politics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power. Verso, 2017. ["Exploring how neoliberalism has discovered the productive force of the psyche. Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault’s biopower, has discovered the productive force of the psyche. In the course of discussing all the facets of neoliberal psychopolitics fueling our contemporary crisis of freedom, Han elaborates an analytical framework that provides an original theory of Big Data and a lucid phenomenology of emotion. But this provocative essay proposes counter models too, presenting a wealth of ideas and surprising alternatives at every turn."]
---. Saving Beauty. Polity Press, 2017. ["Beauty today is a paradox. The cult of beauty is ubiquitous but it has lost its transcendence and become little more than an aspect of consumerism, the aesthetic dimension of capitalism. The sublime and unsettling aspects of beauty have given way to corporeal pleasures and 'likes', resulting in a kind of 'pornography' of beauty. In this book, cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han reinvigorates aesthetic theory for our digital age. He interrogates our preoccupation with all things slick and smooth, from Jeff Koon's sculptures and the iPhone to Brazilian waxing. Reaching far deeper than our superficial reactions to viral videos and memes, Han reclaims beauty, showing how it manifests itself as truth, temptation and even disaster. This wide-ranging and profound exploration of beauty, encompassing ethical and political considerations as well as aesthetic, will appeal to all those interested in cultural and aesthetic theory, philosophy and digital media."]
---. The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering. Polity Press, 2017.
---. The Spirit of Hope. Polity Press, 2024. ["A spectre is haunting us: fear. We are constantly confronted with apocalyptic scenarios: pandemics, world war, the climate catastrophe. Images of the end of the world and the end of human civilization are conjured up with ever greater urgency. Anxiously, we face a bleak future. Preoccupied with crisis management, life becomes a matter of survival. But it is precisely at such moments of fear and despair that hope arises like a phoenix from the ashes. Only hope can give us back a life that is more than mere survival. Fear isolates people and closes them off from one another; hope, by contrast, unites people and forms communities. It opens up a meaningful horizon that re-invigorates and inspires life. It nurtures fantasy and enables us to think about what is yet to come. It makes action possible because it infuses our world with purpose and meaning. Hope is the spring that liberates us from our collective despair and gives us a future. In this short book on hope, Byung-Chul Han gives us the perfect antidote to the climate of fear that pervades our world."]
---. Vita-Contemplative: In Praise of Inactivity. Polity Press, 2023. ["In our busy and hurried lives, we are losing the ability to be inactive. Human existence becomes fully absorbed by activity – even leisure, treated as a respite from work, becomes part of the same logic. Intense life today means first of all more performance or more consumption. We have forgotten that it is precisely inactivity, which does not produce anything, that represents an intense and radiant form of life. For Byung-Chul Han, inactivity constitutes the human. Without moments of pause or hesitation, acting deteriorates into blind action and reaction. When life follows the rule of stimulus–response and need–satisfaction, it atrophies into pure survival: naked biological life. If we lose the ability to be inactive, we begin to resemble machines that simply function. True life begins when concern for survival, for the exigencies of mere life, ends. The ultimate purpose of all human endeavour is inactivity. In a beautifully crafted ode to the art of being still, Han shows that the current crisis in our society calls for a very different way of life: one based on the vita contemplative. He pleads for bringing our ceaseless activities to a stop and making room for the magic that happens in between. Life receives its radiance only from inactivity."]
Kim, Hannah H. "When Story Loses the Plot." The Los Angeles Review of Books (December 20, 2025) ["Byung-Chul Han’s The Crisis of Narration (2024) adds two forces to the critiques of storytelling: fragmentation of attention and the loss of narrative communities. In the past, the hectic pace of life might have driven us toward stories for closure and coherence; instead, today, the same pace—amplified by ongoing political and climate crises—collides with a media environment that undermines narrative form. We traffic in information that is additive and cumulative, stimulating but contingent, never shaped into an arc. Narrative depends on pacing the release of relevant information, but today we are either bombarded with an endless stream of updates or confronted with institutional opacity that withholds crucial information. Both forces prevent events from organizing into a meaningful arc, and Han thus argues that we now live in a post-narrative world. In this environment, “storytelling” becomes “storyselling,” a communication technology that can be more or less effective. And the kinds of stories that do thrive tend to be narrow in form: either “those people are the problem (and the truth will save us)” (e.g., news, conspiracy theories) or “you’re wounded, and understanding that will help you live differently” (e.g., therapy). The potent mix of capitalism, social media, and information overload has rendered most “stories” brief, disconnected, and designed for consumption rather than connection. Think TikTok reels, Instagram Stories, or the news cycle."]
West, Stephen. "Achievement Society and the rise of narcissism, depression and anxiety - Byung-Chul Han." #188 Philosophize This! (September 6, 2023) ["In this episode, Byung-Chul Han’s theory of positive power takes center stage, building on themes of surveillance, control, and the modern self. Han argues that we no longer live in a disciplinary society where behavior is regulated through prohibition and punishment; instead, we exist within an achievement society governed by the illusion of total freedom. This shift replaces the coercive “should” with the self-imposed “can,” encouraging individuals to optimize themselves endlessly under the guise of autonomy. Han sees this as a sophisticated form of domination: people internalize the pressure to constantly improve, turning themselves into marketable projects, and framing their worth in terms of productivity and efficiency. In doing so, they lose touch with “the Other”—that which is different, imperfect, or disruptive to self-centered striving. Han links this to rising levels of depression and burnout, noting how technology reinforces this isolation by offering shallow, self-affirming experiences in place of real connection. True thinking, he argues, requires slowness, contemplation, and a deliberate effort to engage with difference. Rather than succumbing to a world of sameness, Han urges a return to presence, rest, and a deeper sense of the Other—practices that offer a quiet resistance to the invisible forces shaping modern life."
Further Reading:
The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han (2015)
Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han (2017)
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord (1967)]
---. "Byung Chul Han - The Crisis of Narration." Philosophize This! #232 (July 7, 2025) ["Today we talk about the book The Crisis of Narration by the philosopher Byung Chul Han. We talk about the history of storytelling. Walter Benjamins distinction between a Paris fire and a revolution in Madrid. The effects of social media on memory. Story telling vs story selling. AI as pure Intelligenz lacking Geist. The ability for stories to give shape to suffering. The importance of boredom for self-discovery."]
---. "Everything that connects us is slowly disappearing. - Byung Chul Han pt. 2." Philosophize This! #189 (October 3, 2023) ["This episode continues exploring the philosophy of Byung-Chul Han, who argues that today’s society is not best represented by Orwell’s 1984 but by Huxley’s Brave New World, where people voluntarily embrace control through pleasure and self-optimization. Han claims that modern neoliberalism, with its slogans of authenticity and empowerment, actually dissolves community bonds, rituals, and shared narratives, leading to widespread narcissism, anxiety, and disconnection. What disappears, he says, is “constructive negativity”—the pauses, transitions, and moments of reflection that allow for deep understanding, real difference, and truth. As rituals vanish and information floods perception, Han sees society replacing meaningful communication with shallow noise, flattening culture and weakening democracy. In this world obsessed with transparency and efficiency, he suggests a radical antidote: be an “idiot”—someone who slows down, embraces uncertainty, and reconnects with the depth and discomfort that make life and love real."
Further Reading:
The Transparency Society by Byung-Chul Han (2015)
Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han (2017)
The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present by Byung-Chul Han (2020)]
---. "The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism." Philosophize This! #235 (September 3, 2025) ["Today we talk about one of Han's earlier books where he offers an alternative to classic western ideas about subjectivity. We talk about Zen as a religion without God. Substance and emptiness. Alternatives to the reified self. Dwelling nowhere. Original friendliness. And death as an event we desperately try to control."]
---. "Resistance, Love, and the importance of Failure. (Zizek, Byung Chul Han)." Philosophize This! #201 (May 6, 2024) ["This episode explores Slavoj Žižek’s idea that in a world where grand narratives have lost their power, most people fall into one of three paths: burnout and escapism, obsessive careerism, or trying to revive old traditions to find meaning. But Žižek hints at a fourth option—one where people deeply engage with something they truly care about, not to achieve it perfectly, but to fail at it meaningfully and continuously. Through examples like falling in love or pursuing a passion, he shows how real freedom comes from resisting surface-level, commodified experiences and instead embracing deeper, more transformative efforts. Žižek connects this to surplus enjoyment—how people often find meaning not in achieving goals but in the struggle itself, which can be exploited by society. Ultimately, he encourages listeners to take control of their desires, engage deeply with what matters to them, and live in ways that challenge the shallow structures of consumer life."
Further Reading:
Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-Perplexed, Slavoj Žižek (2022)
The Burnout Society, Byung-Chul Han (2015)
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl (2006)]
Wyllie, Robert and Steven Knepper. "Five Ways to Read Byung-Chul Han." The Philosopher 112.2 (Autumn 2024) ["In the world of philosophy and social criticism, a niche market by comparison to pop music and film, Han is a one-man Korean wave. He has published a book each year, on average, for the past thirty years, and he has become an internationally known figure in the past decade. He is the rare philosopher who tries to write for a large popular audience. In a 2013 interview in Korea JoongAng Daily, Han explains, “Philosophy is a tool for better understanding the world, but it is losing ground because philosophers tend to publish such difficult books that nobody dares to read.” Han implies that philosophy is not for professional philosophers but instead for everyone, so that we can better understand our exhausting times. In the same interview, he describes the “duty” of the philosopher to help people discover—and linger in—the world beyond their work and personal projects. He uses one of his favorite metaphors for contemplative immersion in the moment: “I think it’s one of the duties of philosophers to help people find their scent of time.” His writings are marked by a concern with getting us outside of our heads, or at least explaining how we became obsessed with our life projects to the point of self-harm."]
No comments:
Post a Comment