October 2022

Richard Seymour is a writer, broadcaster and political activist and has written a number of books. 

His latest, The Twittering Machine, takes its title from the work of the same name by surrealist artist Paul Klee and Seymour argues that this is a chilling metaphor for the relationship we have with social media. In the book, he explores the staggering scale and speed of technological development and in particular our constant desire to scroll more, tweet more, post more. 

What does this addiction say about us and our social and political relationships and what are the consequences? It can be difficult to engage objectively with critiques of technologies when we are all so dependent upon what it offers us. 

The early vision I think many of us had of new technologies being liberal and participatory are increasingly hard to square with dramatically escalating incidences of fake news, trolls, online mobs, alt-right subcultures etc. 

Writers like Seymour risk making readers uncomfortable, using descriptions such as ‘addicts’ for those who spend hours on social media, but now more than ever we need to take a moment to reflect the role of technology in our lives and, more importantly, the trajectory we are all on. 

The point that Seymour makes is that the technology itself is neither good nor bad so therefore we can choose to use it however we see fit. But we need the whole picture if we are going to see clearly. 

Seymour has a lovely, accessible writing style that exposes the reality of our ‘liberal technologies’ but at the same time looks us square in the eye to encourage us towards something better, towards an “imaginative placeholder for human desires”.