Mass Surveillance and the Loss of Fun
Download MP3In this episode of Future Knowledge, Alexis Durante-Tierney and Helen Vogelsong-Donahue, hosts of the Born Digital podcast, explore how growing up under constant surveillance may be changing the way young people socialize, experiment, and have fun. From smartphones and social media to school surveillance and cameras in public spaces, they ask what happens when there’s no expectation of privacy—or forgetting. The conversation also considers what mass recording and preservation mean for libraries and archives, and for our ability to let the past disappear.
This conversation is based on the Born Digital essay, "How Fun Became Dystopian: On Gen Z, Flock cameras, and the death of fun," by Helen Vogelsong-Donahue, Alexis Durante-Tierney, and born digital on Substack. https://b0rndigital.substack.com/p/how-fun-became-dystopian
This conversation was recorded on 9/22/2026.
Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge
This conversation is based on the Born Digital essay, "How Fun Became Dystopian: On Gen Z, Flock cameras, and the death of fun," by Helen Vogelsong-Donahue, Alexis Durante-Tierney, and born digital on Substack. https://b0rndigital.substack.com/p/how-fun-became-dystopian
This conversation was recorded on 9/22/2026.
Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge
