Time to Reboot: Feminism in the Algorithm Age

by Carla Wilshire

Technology is radically transforming society. From social media to artificial intelligence, our world is now governed by algorithms, powerful tools that not only predict human behaviour but affect how we look at each other, and ourselves. At the same time, we are seeing hard-fought-for women’s rights being recontested and women feeling increasingly threatened. In America, Roe v Wade has been overturned, while in Australia, the number of sexual assaults reported to police has increased year on year for the past decade. Could it be that the digital revolution is killing feminism?
Time to Reboot explores the new digital gender divide. It shows how the algorithms favoured by Big Tech, designed to respond to and reinforce group characteristics, are dramatically recasting our relationships and our personal values. AI trained on biased data is generating a new wave of male privilege, sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant. In the 2020s, the ‘virtual rape’ of female players in online gaming is rarely commented on, while feminist values are in record decline among a younger generation swayed by an online ethos that promotes tech libertarianism and rewards the obsessive cultivation of self-image.
This book unpacks the uncomfortable parallels between a digital and tech consumer culture we find impossible to resist and the nascent decline of gender equity. It questions whether the technology that is meant to both guide us today and show us the future is, in fact, pushing women backwards — and if so, how we can fix this.

88 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2024

Reviews

[✩☽ · Rating 2 out of 5]

what is it about the trans issue that makes otherwise intelligent women so cowardly and intellectually dishonest. how are you crying about how feminism has lost focus while simultaneously accusing it of being "elitist and hypocritical" for keeping its focus on women.

talk about literally being part of the problem you're complaining about. feminism is - as she defines it herself - the theory of social political and economic equality of the sexes and organzied activity on behalf of womens rights and interests, not a refuge for anyone and everyone with "lifelong ordeals" regardless of biological sex, but hey what remarkable commitment to mental gymnastics.

anyway, this would've been a more interesting book if the author had the courage to go against any of the prevailing orthodoxies around gender identification or "sex work", she identifies a lot of salient issues but can't seem to really engage with them beyond the fact that they're harmful and need to be resolved.

[vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

partial fault of the format (meant only to provide a brief overview of the problem at hand), partial fault of the author (jumps between different cases and by the end had begun to stray from algorithmic analysis to corporate analysis and wishful thinking about 5th wave feminism), and partial fault of my own (i’ve read more on the topics at large that a lot of this content felt too simplistic) that i do not rate this higher but all in all still a very necessary and harrowing reality of the digital age