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Technoliberal rhetoric, civic attention, and common sensation in Sergey Brin’s “Why Google Glass?”

ABSTRACT Sergey Brin’s February 2013 TED Talk, “Why Google Glass?,” is an example of technoliberal rhetoric that offers a constricted vision of civic attention. Technoliberalism, the intensification of neoliberalism through computational technology, funds Brin’s emphasis on the primacy of action-oriented leisure, the power of connection, and the possibility of sensation without mediation. I interpret “Why Google Glass?” as indicative of how technoliberalism privatizes, marketizes, and digitizes sensation, frustrating the efforts of strangers to make common, democratic worlds. The essay concludes by underlining the continued importance of sensing-in-common, identifying specific vectors for rhetoricians to pursue in preserving the foundations of democratic community: advocating for shared public life instead of corporatized, privatized experiences; employing glass metaphors to understand how ubiquitous glassed devices shape sensation; and designing interventions with and without the aid of digital technologies to spark civic desire.