Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part II

A stranded American tourist shares the story of a six-month screen-free quest through India and Nepal just as the coronavirus explodes. Part II.

By Tom Grotewohl | August 12, 2020 | Cognition, Culture, Media, Philosophy, Society, Well-Being | Acceptance, Addiction, Art, Awareness, Boredom, Boundaries, Concentration, Conscientious Tech Use, Consciousness, Convenience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Creativity, Distraction, Dystopia, Electronic Devices, Experience, Food, Ganges, India, Jungle, Localism, Lockdown, Meditation, music, Nature, Nepal, News, Obsession, Pandemic, Peace, Photography, Presence, Renunciation, Ritual, Sacred, Screen Sabbath, Serendipity, Smartphone, Social Media, Spirituality, Superficiality, Tech-Free, Time, Tranquility, travel, Wisdom, Writing

Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part I

An American tourist stranded in India shares his story: six months traveling without a screen, only to pick one up again just in time for the global meltdown.

By Tom Grotewohl | July 30, 2020 | Cognition, Culture, Media, Philosophy, Society, Well-Being | Acceptance, Addiction, Art, Awareness, Boredom, Boundaries, Concentration, Conscientious Tech Use, Consciousness, Convenience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Creativity, Distraction, Dystopia, Electronic Devices, Experience, Food, Ganges, India, Jungle, Localism, Lockdown, Meditation, music, Nature, Nepal, News, Obsession, Pandemic, Peace, Photography, Presence, Renunciation, Ritual, Sacred, Screen Sabbath, Serendipity, Smartphone, Social Media, Spirituality, Superficiality, Tech-Free, Time, Tranquility, travel, Wisdom, Writing

Podcast #35: Ainissa Ramirez

Science evangelist Ainissa Ramirez takes a look at how major technologies have shaped human culture—both intentionally and not.

By Betsy Brunner | June 4, 2020 | Culture, Ethics, Health, Knowledge, Media, Podcasts, Society, Transportation, Well-Being | Attention, Bias, Binary Thinking, Circadian Rhythms, Communications, Community, Consumerism, Control, Coronavirus, Critical Thinking, Diversity, Education, Electric Light, Emotional Reactivity, Empathy, Engineers, History, Imagination, Invention, Inventors, Language, Literature, Memory, Motivation, Non-Verbal Communication, Nuance, Photography, Polarization, Politics, Reading, Science, Self-Empowerment, Self-Identity, Social Media, Speed, STEM, storytelling, Telegraph, Texting, The Alchemy of Us, Trains, Twitter, Unintended Consequences

Print Preview: Issue #2 | Spring 2019

Our 2nd issue is off to the printer. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s inside.

By Mo Lotman | February 20, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Energy, Environment, Health, Journalism, Media, Politics, Publishing, Safety | Academia, Amazon, Dams, Douglas Rushkoff, Joplin Tornado, Marshall McLuhan, Mechanical Turk, Print Media, Research, Russia, Social Media, Synthetic Marijuana, Team Human

Curbing Our Tech Obsession: What, Why, & How

Young people are obsessively checking their phones more every year. Here are some reasons why, and strategies to regain control.

By Larry Rosen | January 30, 2019 | Media, Neurology, Psychology, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Alerts, Android, Anxiety, Apple, Attention, Blue Light, Boredom, Circadian Rhythm, Cues, Depression, Digital Media, Digital Wellness, Distracted Driving, Distraction, FOMO, Google, Information Foraging Theory, Marketing, Metacognition, Nir Eyal, Nomophobia, Obsession, OCD, Psychology, Sleep, Smartphones, Social Media, Social Obligation, Teens, Tim Wu, Young Adults

What Facebook Knows

We’ve long known Facebook is selling our data to advertisers in a vague sense; now we can see what they’re hoarding and who’s buying.

By Art Keller | August 21, 2018 | Advertising, Economics, Ethics, Media, Privacy | Advertisers, Advertising, Alec Sears, Brad Bauer, Browser Fingerprint, Browser Sniffing, Cambridge Analytica, Compass, Credit Agencies, Dan Nainan, Data, Data Brokers, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Facebook, Jessica Scherlag, Logan Abbott, Pete Zaborsky, Privacy Badger, Social Media, Spear-Phishing, surveillance

Podcast #18: Catherine Steiner-Adair on Tech and Child Development

Catherine Steiner-Adair is a clinical psychologist whose empathic 2013 book The Big Disconnect warned us about the impacts of digital tech on child development and family relationships. She’s been on a non-stop speaking tour ever since.

By Mo Lotman | May 16, 2018 | Cognition, Education, Family, Health, Identity, Podcasts, Psychology, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Anxiety, Apps, Attachment, Bonding, Boredom, Childhood Development, Creativity, Cyberbullying, Depression, Disconnection, Education, Exercise, Families, Gaming, Impulse Control, Laptops, Learning, Motor Skills, Obesity, Overstimulation, Parents, Permanence, Play, Porn, Quiet, Schools, Sexting, Shaming, smart phones, Social Media, Suicide, Tablets

He Started #DeleteFacebook… Nine Years Ago

Nine years ago, three artists created a controversial site to make a statement about Facebook’s practices. The company sued and accused them of scraping data. Oh, the irony.

By Art Keller | April 11, 2018 | Culture, Ethics, Law, Media, Privacy | Advertising, Apps, Art, Bits of Freedom, Cambridge Analytica, Chris Wylie, Congress, Danja Vasiliev, Dark Patterns, Data Scraping, Data-Mining, Deleting Accounts, Developers, Digital Art, Edward Snowden, EFF, Facebook, Fraud, Gordan Savicic, Manipulation, Mark Zuckerberg, Moddr, Privacy, Privacy Zuckering, Social Commentary, Social Media, Tobias Leingruber, Twitter, Walter Langelaar, Web Suicide Machine

Is Democracy Threatened by Chatbots?

Chatbots are becoming more sophisticated both in their ability to process language and gauge emotion. As social media increasingly influences our news and beliefs, this could be a big problem.

By Emily Ludolf | January 31, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Government, Journalism, Knowledge, Politics, Psychology, Security, Society | AI, Bias, Chatbots, Customer Service, Cyberbullying, Democracy, Elections, Fake News, Filter Bubble, Influence, Machine Learning, Microsoft, Natural Language Processing, News, NLP, Opinion, Oxford, Profiling, Propaganda, Psychiatry, Psychology, Russia, Social Media, Targeting, Tay, Therapy, Trolling, Twitter

Podcast #15: David Greenfield on Internet Addiction

Psychiatrist, professor, and author David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, was one of the first medical professionals to recognize and study the addictive qualities of the Internet. He explains what we know, what it means, and what can be done.

By Mo Lotman | January 17, 2018 | Cognition, Family, Health, Neurology, Podcasts, Psychology, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Alienation, Behavior, Boot Camps, Boredom, China, Community, Creativity, Detox, Distracted Driving, Dopamine, DSM, Facebook, Food, Gambling, Gaming, Health Care, Heroin, Humanity, Impulse Control, Inequality, Internet, Medicine, Public Space, Self-Medication, Sex, smart phones, Social Disconnection, Social Media, Teens, Unhappiness, Variable Ratio Reinforcement Schedule, Variable Reward, Video Games

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