Why does everything feel so joyless? Welcome to the age of decadence without pleasure | Michèle Mendelssohn and Charlie Tyson
An opinion piece in The Guardian argues that contemporary decadence has been hollowed out by technology, replacing genuine pleasure with algorithmically delivered substitutes — infinite scroll, chatbot flattery, and optimized consumption — that feel empty rather than satisfying.
Why this matters: This is a cultural argument, but the privacy angle is real. Platforms are not just capturing your attention. They are capturing what you want, when you want it, and how easily you can be nudged into a cheaper substitute for the real thing. That data profile gets more accurate the more joyless and automatic your behavior becomes. The business model depends on desire that never quite gets satisfied. You stay on the platform. They learn more. The loop is the product.
Who should care: General readers · AI governance · Policy
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