Disconnect explores Facebook’s ‘affective bonds’ that treat disconnection as an existential threat. Karppi questions how much control over our digital lives we really have, and finds that it may not be as much as we would like. This is illustrated by Facebook’s algorithms that leave us powerless in determining the information we see or do not see – decided instead by concealed codes, AI, and software that are becoming so “smart,” some even have the ability to predict our behavior, taking pre-determinism to a new level – controlled by digital forces we cannot physically see, but that exist in the hidden infrastructure of Facebook’s platform. Furthermore, the Cambridge Analytic scandal, which Karppi is unable to really explore as the full story broke three days after Disconnect went into production, proved that our Facebook data is not safe, but instead mined for both political and monetary gain. 

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