Dictionary

machine zone en · NOUN

Etymology

Coined by cultural anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) A trance-like state of immersion reached through intense interaction with gambling machines.
   • How does technology hold us close, so close that we turn to it instead of turning within? It keeps us in a “machine zone.” 2015, Sherry Turkle, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Penguin, →ISBN:
   • As one addict explains, she is not playing to win but to ‘stay in that machine zone where nothing else matters.’ 2020, Richard Seymour, The Twittering Machine, Verso Books, →ISBN, page 64:
   • Echoing Mollie’s wish to stay in the machine zone, they spoke of gamblers’ desire for “time-on-device,” or TOD. 2012, Natasha Dow Schüll, Addiction by Design, page 3:

Forms