Time for a Digital Detox: Burnout, Addiction, and Desperation in Silicon Valley

Abstract

There is a crisis brewing in the innovation capital of the world. From protests at Google bus stops, to rallies at San Francisco City Hall over Airbnb gentrification, to a stark increase in homelessness, there is a growing rift between the have and have not's in Silicon Valley. Meanwhile the average tech employee, told they are “making the world a better place,” is faced with escalating labor demands, hyper‐connectivity, and a shift from “work‐life balance” to “work is life.” The tech worker is in a contentious position – torn between corporate propaganda and the visible externalities of a for‐profit business. To understand how this tension plays out for the average techie, I illustrate a “disconnect camp” where the everyday rules of SF techie sociality are inverted – no technology, no names, no discussion of work, no networking. This carnavlesque pacifies postmodern contradictions about “valueless work” by placing at its center “technology as the problem” –rather than the corporate form. In this way, existential crises of the laborer are quelled, allowing them to recapitulate high‐tech corporate‐capital.