Are you dreading the mindless preparation for the holidays?
Wishing you could just curl up with a good book?
Then you need some thought-provoking podcasts to listen to while wrapping presents, peeling potatoes, and sewing snowflakes onto angel costumes! They’ll also put you a step ahead towards your 2017 screen time strategy.
So have a read (and a listen)!
Are Our Devices Turning Us into a New Kind of Human?
“You’re not Robocop, and you’re not Terminator, but you are cyborgs every time you look at a computer screen or use one of your cellphone devices.”
– Amber Case
Are screens just another tool in the long line of human inventions – stone tools, bronze arrowheads, iron swords – that have changed the way we live?
Humans have long invented tools to extend their bodies, and mental tools – cave painting, printing press, apps – to extend our brains.
Amber Case – Cyborg anthropologist – argues that screens are increasingly becoming a mental exoskeleton. And this causes problems, both at an individual and societal level.
“…touchscreens – and particularly high-quality apps – are very very different from traditional passive media.”
– Dr Dimitri Christakis
Dr Dimitri Christakis – paediatrician, epidemiologist and parent of two teenagers – explores how we interact with our screens and how that could be changing us for better or worse.
Crucially, Dr Dimitri’s research explores whether it’s possible to overstimulate the developing brain (or inappropriately stimulate it in ways that are harmful).
Dimitri elaborates on why all screens are not created equal, highlighting the difference between passive media (television) and interactive touch-screens and apps.
“I’m still excited by technology…but we’re letting it take us places we don’t want to go.”
– Sherry Turkle
As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other?
That’s the question Sherry Turkle – Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – explores in this podcast.
People want to be with each other – and also elsewhere – because what matters most to them is control of where they put their attention.
By reaching for our devices – rather than each other – for mini ‘escapes’, we are setting ourselves up for trouble. We’re getting used to a new way of being alone together.
“We attach to these devices – they’ve sort of replaced the cigarette if you will – and we suck away on them, and we waste a lot of time” – Dr Edward Hallowell
Dr Edward Hallowell – psychiatrist, NY Times bestselling author, and leading ADHD authority – gives us 10 quick tips to manage your mini electronic devices (smartphones), so they don’t manage you.
In a world where we reach for our smartphones first thing in the morning – and place them safely under our pillows at night – electronic devices are entwined with our daily lives.
Whether it’s T.I.O, challenging yourself – your family – to a screen-free weekend, or simply remembering to think, these top 10 tips will help release you from technology’s vice-like grip.
