Gadget Consciousness explores the new political and social forces that are emerging in the age of social media: primarily those of collective thought, will and action. Such powers are supported by our digital gadgets working in a state of constant connectedness. In this groundbreaking study, Joss Hands asks: what impact does our relentless fixation on the gadget have on the struggle for new kinds of solidarity, political articulation, and identity?In the context of such technologies, the transformation of consciousness as a historical political force is examined in two senses: as individual consciousness - in terms of sentience and will - and also as class consciousness.Hands goes on to explores the digital commons, looking at a range of current manifestations, to ask what forms digital solidarity can take, whether we can learn from the communisms of the past and how might this be manifested in the future?The book argues that in forms of both individual consciousness and class consciousness, ubiquity of networked gadgets creates distinct variations of an active 'general intellect' that offers exciting new opportunities for social and political change, but also significant dangers of alienation and stupefaction.