| dc.description.abstract | Technological devices continue to play a more important role in our everyday lives. Nowadays, online platforms and applications like Spotify, TripAdvisor, Facebook and dating sites are helping us to make important decisions through the process of datafication, which converts subjective data into quantified data. This thesis questions the relationship between datafication and our feelings of authenticity, especially in personal decision-making. In doing so, it asks two things: what is the relationship between authenticity and datafication, and which conception of authenticity is most suitable to interpret this relationship? I explicate two conceptions of authenticity: liberal authenticity, based on the
ideas of John Christman, and dialogical authenticity, based on Charles Taylor’s theory of authenticity. Afterwards, I set out the concept of datafication and how it is related to authenticity. Four expressions are central in this relationship, and they offer the possibility to determine which conception of authenticity succeeds in interpreting the concept of datafication. In comparison with each other, it becomes clear that dialogical authenticity offers a rich understanding of authenticity and allows for positive changes, whereas liberal authenticity fails to grasp the multiple aspects of datafication and gets caught up in a conception focussing solely on manipulation. | |
