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The School of Life
How to Thrive in the Digital Age
Our world is, increasingly, a digital one. Over half of the planet’s adult population now spend more of their waking hours ‘plugged in’ than not, whether to the internet, mobile telephony, or other digital media. To email, text, tweet and blog our way through our careers, relationships and even our family lives is now the status quo. But what effect is this need for constant connection really having? For the first time, Tom Chatfield examines what our wired life is really doing to our minds and our culture - and offers practical advice on how we can hope to prosper in a digital century.
One in the new series of books from The School of Life, launched May 2012:
How to Stay Sane by Philippa Perry
How to Find Fulfilling Work by Roman Krznaric
How to Worry Less About Money by John Armstrong
How to Change the World by John-Paul Flintoff
How to Thrive in the Digital Age by Tom Chatfield
How to Think More About Sex by Alain de Botton
162 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 2012
39 people are currently reading
1042 people want to read
About the author
Tom Chatfield
20 books111 followersDr Tom Chatfield is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. Tom’s books exploring digital culture—most recently "Critical Thinking" (SAGE Publishing) and "Live This Book!" (Penguin)—have appeared in over two dozen countries and languages. He's currently writing a series of thrillers for Hodder set in the world of the dark net.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
February 6, 2017
Not a lot of solutions are given but I like the insight and clarity through which the problems are diagnosed. Given below are the arguments/excerpts that I liked:
How to Thrive In The Digital Age
• The presence of a constant audience on social media creates the pressure of either censure or pleasing others. The questions shifts from ‘who you are’ to ‘what you are doing’ and ultimately, ‘what you are doing’ is often defined by the approval of the audience that will judge it.
• It’s important to have unplugged time. Unplugged retreats are becoming a trend which shows that it is becoming kind of elitist. However, it’s important to have times in which you are not connected to the world via text or social media. When you are not trying to be someone or watching others become someone else. That unplugged time has the most to offer us in terms of productivity, originality and insight.
• Another bane of using the social media is the multitasking that comes with it. You are listening to songs, opening relevant links, reading news and sharing stuff on the social media all at the same time. Whatever information that might come from it would be absorbed at a very superficial level. Research upon research has shown that multitasking, which is essentially dividing attention, is not good for productivity. A study found out that while in the middle of serious mental work, it takes 40-45 minutes to arrive at a state of serious mental effort once you stop to answer a text or check your Facebook account.
• What gives real memory its richness and its character, not to mention its mystery and fragility, is its contingency. It exists in time, changes as the body changes. Ultimately, that is what makes us human: shared history, depth of feeling and the acceptance of each other’s uniqueness. This is how they are different from memories that are saved on hard drive. There are many attempts to give this humanness to the digital memory. One such field is ‘memory engineering’ in Computer Science. This is what Facebook uses to remind you what happened on a particular day a year ago.
• We must be able to adapt to circumstances- to adapt our circumstances to us, insisting that they accommodate the full gamut of our observing, thinking and feeling. This includes the capacity to divide our attention; to devote ourselves to one idea, or to another, or to the exclusion of all others. But there must be time and space for other freedoms- and for us to work in ways whose only necessary justification is that they work for us.
• For Google, one of the keys that determined its algorithm was the number of people that visited a site. This made them rank a site higher on their result. In this way, sufficiently precise mass observation can provide the key to the most elusive of qualities, quality itself. Stuff’s credibility is determined by public taste.
• In older times, experts of a field used to determine the quality of addition in that field. Those considered the ‘authority’ had more weigh in opinion making than the ‘vulgar’. However, with the advent of internet, the online majority has become that authority. The ratings of an 11 year old on goodreads matters as much as a literature professor. Much as online authority has increasingly become divorced from expertise, so it seems, cultural production has become increasingly divorced from talent. However, one must never forget the principles that are true under any authority: honest argument, articulate self-awareness and a genuine desire to learn.
• Because of social media, now there is not delay between the event and its reception. People become aware of the event the moment it transpires on social media and use their tweets or Facebook status to comment on that immediately. However, despite the freedom that social media offers, it has a danger of become an ‘echo chamber of like-minded people reinforcing their own beliefs and prejudices.’
• Pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way. Internet is a great mirror in the case of sexual desire and its expression. Even if you have the most perverted, illegal or damaging fantasy in the world, if one other person on this world has the same fantasy, the internet will show you that. Porn sites are just one click away in the modern digital age and regularly feature in advertisements. However, they are by far the most researched stuff on Google. Only one porn site features in the top 50 most searched sites.
• Hiding behind screens is a process of alienation whereby people learn to make their lives in to playthings over which they retain complete, though in some way deeply suspicious control. However, one must remember that technology is an enabler of that alienation, not its root cause. Some people might take refuge in a virtual life rather than try to change their real life.
• Online games involve a limited bounded area where open ended complexity of actual real life is replaced something simpler and more intense: a series of problems that can be solved by considerable effort.
• In order to better understand the allure of online games, one must understand the concepts of tame problem and wicked problem. A tame problem is the one in which the person trying to solve them has all the necessary data at their disposal and knows from the beginning that there is a final solution or a winning proposition. Games like chess fall in this category. The wicked problem is the reverse. Not only we don’t have the required data at our disposal, we also don’t know if there is a final solution or not (aka real life).
• In playing games, we abandon the wicked for the tame. This is where the allure of video games lie. They are predictable and repeatable. Real life however, is rarely like that. That is why people take refuge in them so that they can escape the anxiety and uncertainty of modern existence.
• In final analysis, it would do us well to look at the nature of experiences rather than the tools create them. Only then can we come to realize the needs that the digital world is fulfilling and the benefits of fulfilling it in an old fashioned way.
How to Thrive In The Digital Age
• The presence of a constant audience on social media creates the pressure of either censure or pleasing others. The questions shifts from ‘who you are’ to ‘what you are doing’ and ultimately, ‘what you are doing’ is often defined by the approval of the audience that will judge it.
• It’s important to have unplugged time. Unplugged retreats are becoming a trend which shows that it is becoming kind of elitist. However, it’s important to have times in which you are not connected to the world via text or social media. When you are not trying to be someone or watching others become someone else. That unplugged time has the most to offer us in terms of productivity, originality and insight.
• Another bane of using the social media is the multitasking that comes with it. You are listening to songs, opening relevant links, reading news and sharing stuff on the social media all at the same time. Whatever information that might come from it would be absorbed at a very superficial level. Research upon research has shown that multitasking, which is essentially dividing attention, is not good for productivity. A study found out that while in the middle of serious mental work, it takes 40-45 minutes to arrive at a state of serious mental effort once you stop to answer a text or check your Facebook account.
• What gives real memory its richness and its character, not to mention its mystery and fragility, is its contingency. It exists in time, changes as the body changes. Ultimately, that is what makes us human: shared history, depth of feeling and the acceptance of each other’s uniqueness. This is how they are different from memories that are saved on hard drive. There are many attempts to give this humanness to the digital memory. One such field is ‘memory engineering’ in Computer Science. This is what Facebook uses to remind you what happened on a particular day a year ago.
• We must be able to adapt to circumstances- to adapt our circumstances to us, insisting that they accommodate the full gamut of our observing, thinking and feeling. This includes the capacity to divide our attention; to devote ourselves to one idea, or to another, or to the exclusion of all others. But there must be time and space for other freedoms- and for us to work in ways whose only necessary justification is that they work for us.
• For Google, one of the keys that determined its algorithm was the number of people that visited a site. This made them rank a site higher on their result. In this way, sufficiently precise mass observation can provide the key to the most elusive of qualities, quality itself. Stuff’s credibility is determined by public taste.
• In older times, experts of a field used to determine the quality of addition in that field. Those considered the ‘authority’ had more weigh in opinion making than the ‘vulgar’. However, with the advent of internet, the online majority has become that authority. The ratings of an 11 year old on goodreads matters as much as a literature professor. Much as online authority has increasingly become divorced from expertise, so it seems, cultural production has become increasingly divorced from talent. However, one must never forget the principles that are true under any authority: honest argument, articulate self-awareness and a genuine desire to learn.
• Because of social media, now there is not delay between the event and its reception. People become aware of the event the moment it transpires on social media and use their tweets or Facebook status to comment on that immediately. However, despite the freedom that social media offers, it has a danger of become an ‘echo chamber of like-minded people reinforcing their own beliefs and prejudices.’
• Pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way. Internet is a great mirror in the case of sexual desire and its expression. Even if you have the most perverted, illegal or damaging fantasy in the world, if one other person on this world has the same fantasy, the internet will show you that. Porn sites are just one click away in the modern digital age and regularly feature in advertisements. However, they are by far the most researched stuff on Google. Only one porn site features in the top 50 most searched sites.
• Hiding behind screens is a process of alienation whereby people learn to make their lives in to playthings over which they retain complete, though in some way deeply suspicious control. However, one must remember that technology is an enabler of that alienation, not its root cause. Some people might take refuge in a virtual life rather than try to change their real life.
• Online games involve a limited bounded area where open ended complexity of actual real life is replaced something simpler and more intense: a series of problems that can be solved by considerable effort.
• In order to better understand the allure of online games, one must understand the concepts of tame problem and wicked problem. A tame problem is the one in which the person trying to solve them has all the necessary data at their disposal and knows from the beginning that there is a final solution or a winning proposition. Games like chess fall in this category. The wicked problem is the reverse. Not only we don’t have the required data at our disposal, we also don’t know if there is a final solution or not (aka real life).
• In playing games, we abandon the wicked for the tame. This is where the allure of video games lie. They are predictable and repeatable. Real life however, is rarely like that. That is why people take refuge in them so that they can escape the anxiety and uncertainty of modern existence.
• In final analysis, it would do us well to look at the nature of experiences rather than the tools create them. Only then can we come to realize the needs that the digital world is fulfilling and the benefits of fulfilling it in an old fashioned way.
October 1, 2014
More from the school of extended-Guardian-articles-you-wouldn't-read than School of Life- a simple extended musing of things you already know about our times, the last thing it does is tell you how to thrive in the digital age.
March 12, 2016
It isn't like a conventional self-help book. Instead, the format is like a big essay, structured in a way encompassing key themes such as the history of technology, transition into the digital age, gaming, politics associated, pornography and its implications etcetera. I'm not quite certain if the question asked in the title of the book was answered by the author or not. If so, it was highly implicit. Author's view can be summarised by just one line in the book, "Simply deploring one or the other helps nobody, for each represents a different set of possibilities for thought and action. Rather, we must learn to ask- and teach our children to ask- which aspects of a task, and of living are best served by each. And we must find ways of effectively building each into our way of life." In other words, it's all about balancing one's wired and unwired time effectively to thrive in life. I would rate the book three for the extensive research the author has done and the supplementary reading list provided at the end as 'homework'.
May 18, 2012
Some really interesting ideas are touched upon in this book but it is rather short and doesn't explore them in depth which is a great shame ... Just because the book explores the digital age which implies we have all become accustomed to brevity and digging in and out of interesting snippets when browsing the internet, that ideal should not have been applied to the book and doing so makes it fall short.
March 7, 2017
I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from this book but whatever it was I didn't get it. This book was alright but I didn't feel like I learned anything new or even found the information to be presented in a really great way.
June 10, 2015
Tom Chatfield has a refreshingly positive view of the latest technology. Most of the literature I run across on the subject seems to revolve around the doom and gloom perception that all of it is going to rot our minds and create a society of misfits. Oh, and give the powers-that-be access to all our data which will certainly lead to a Big Brother society from which we'll never emerge. This book, on the other hand, spells out the positive possibilities of all our connectivity as well as some of the drawbacks that being constantly plugged in can create. If we lead lives of conscious consumption of technology, he claims, there should be no reason we cannot thrive and evolve to new levels of happiness. My only complaint about this book was that it was so short. There seems to be a lot more that he could have said on both sides of the argument in a more in-depth analysis of the subject.
June 15, 2012
Nothing makes a geek at heart more happy than technology and then talking about how technology impacts everyone. Chatfield gives an insightful overview of the various issues raised by technology from a humanist perspective. This is part of a British book series of "how to" books for the modern human. Quick and easy read with a lot of insight packed in a small space.
Read
January 10, 2013Interesting series "the school of life" looks to be, the message I took from this was basically not to spend too much time on the computer, or to use it indiscriminately. It seems that a lot of popular philosophy books like this encourage us to lead a considered life rather than a haphazard one, if only I could recall whose basic treatise this was. Plato? Where is google when you need it ?
January 8, 2017
هيچ حرف تازه اى نداشت برام
فقط يه سرى اطلاعات كلى كه بعد ١٥ سال اينترنت گردى خودم همشون رو ميدونستم تقريبا
فقط يه سرى اطلاعات كلى كه بعد ١٥ سال اينترنت گردى خودم همشون رو ميدونستم تقريبا
January 12, 2017
hmm I didn't learn too much from this book actually. Missing application in my own life tbh
May 9, 2020
I read in English but this review is in Bahasa Indonesia
Membaca sekilas judulnya, aku sempat berpikir bahwa buku ini akan membahas bagaimana caranya memanfaatkan teknologi untuk memaksimalkan hidup kita. Sama seperti buku-buku pengembangan diri yang mengambil sudut pandang teknologi.
Buku ini dibuka dengan sejarah perihal teknologi. Perlu dicatat, teknologi tidak serta merta merupakan perlatan yang berbentuk elektronik. Kegiatan menulis, mencatat, dan mengarsip juga dihitung sebagai teknologi sebagaimana kegiatan tersebut memudahkan manusia dalam beraktivitsa. Tom Chatfield sengaja membawa premis tentang masifnya internet ke dalam buku ini semata-mata untuk meningkatkan kewaspadaan manusia selama menggunakan teknologi.
Terbagi mejadi 8 bab bahasan, Chatfield tidak memaksa pembaca untuk melakukan apa yang ia sarankan. Melainkan memberikan pemahaman apa yang terjadi jika kita tidak berhati-hati di dunia maya (misal). Ia pun juga memberikan pemaparan mengenai cara kita mengonsumsi informasi dengan bantuan internet, terutama media sosial. Wajar saja jika kita disuguhkan suatu topik tertentu secara terus menerus sebab itulah yang dilakukan oleh kecerdasan buatan sebagai bentuk peningkatan pelayanannya.
Yang menarik adalah ketika Chatfield menganalogikan politik dalam dunia maya dengan distribusi pornografi. Ia mengatakan, kehadiran pornografi di dunia internet membuktikan bahwa apapun kesukaanmu, pasti akan terus menemukan "pasar"-nya. Begitu pula dengan politik. Ketika di sekeliling kita merasa bahwa tidak ada yang memiliki pandangan politik yang sama, tetapi begitu kita masuk ke dalam hutan rimba internet, akan muncul petunjuk yang menuntun menuju kumpulan orang-orang yang berpaham sama.
Dengan hanya sekitar 150 halaman, buku ini membuktikan bahwa dugaanku salah. Cukup membukakan mata terkait beberapa hal di dunia digital namun dibawakan dengan ringan. Ahya, aku pribadi suka dengan beberapa referensi yang dikutip karena mengingatkanku pada masa-masa kuliah dulu.
Since the invention of writing more than five millennia ago, the world has been transformed by what the American sociologist Daniel Bell called "intellectual technologies": technologies that allow us to extend our minds in much the same way as weapons and clothing extend the power of our bodies.
Membaca sekilas judulnya, aku sempat berpikir bahwa buku ini akan membahas bagaimana caranya memanfaatkan teknologi untuk memaksimalkan hidup kita. Sama seperti buku-buku pengembangan diri yang mengambil sudut pandang teknologi.
Buku ini dibuka dengan sejarah perihal teknologi. Perlu dicatat, teknologi tidak serta merta merupakan perlatan yang berbentuk elektronik. Kegiatan menulis, mencatat, dan mengarsip juga dihitung sebagai teknologi sebagaimana kegiatan tersebut memudahkan manusia dalam beraktivitsa. Tom Chatfield sengaja membawa premis tentang masifnya internet ke dalam buku ini semata-mata untuk meningkatkan kewaspadaan manusia selama menggunakan teknologi.
Terbagi mejadi 8 bab bahasan, Chatfield tidak memaksa pembaca untuk melakukan apa yang ia sarankan. Melainkan memberikan pemahaman apa yang terjadi jika kita tidak berhati-hati di dunia maya (misal). Ia pun juga memberikan pemaparan mengenai cara kita mengonsumsi informasi dengan bantuan internet, terutama media sosial. Wajar saja jika kita disuguhkan suatu topik tertentu secara terus menerus sebab itulah yang dilakukan oleh kecerdasan buatan sebagai bentuk peningkatan pelayanannya.
Yang menarik adalah ketika Chatfield menganalogikan politik dalam dunia maya dengan distribusi pornografi. Ia mengatakan, kehadiran pornografi di dunia internet membuktikan bahwa apapun kesukaanmu, pasti akan terus menemukan "pasar"-nya. Begitu pula dengan politik. Ketika di sekeliling kita merasa bahwa tidak ada yang memiliki pandangan politik yang sama, tetapi begitu kita masuk ke dalam hutan rimba internet, akan muncul petunjuk yang menuntun menuju kumpulan orang-orang yang berpaham sama.
Like almost everything else in an age of ubiquitous technology, digital sex isn't just about looking: it's about seeking, connecting, and finding that you're not alone -- or that aloneness need no longer be dull if you have an internet connection.
Dengan hanya sekitar 150 halaman, buku ini membuktikan bahwa dugaanku salah. Cukup membukakan mata terkait beberapa hal di dunia digital namun dibawakan dengan ringan. Ahya, aku pribadi suka dengan beberapa referensi yang dikutip karena mengingatkanku pada masa-masa kuliah dulu.
March 1, 2018
We live in an age of miracles. Technology has gone through fascinating changes in the last few decades. Looking back a few decades even to the early first years of the 21th century a lot has happen and will continue, that’s how technology works. Intel’s co-founder Gordon E.Moore predicted that every 18 months the CPU chips performance will be doubling, till this day this has been the case. It’s expected that this will continue happening till somewhere between 2015 and 2020.
The first digital computers appeared in the 1940s. By the end of 1970s, new machines by Apple, Commodore Tandy sold thousands of unites, it is said that the digital revolution had gone public. Nowadays there are countless of people waiting for the latest technologies to arrive and are fascinated about them. You can see how far companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Sony have become. People are willing to line up at midnight at the release of some certain game or brand products for example the new IPhones or gaming consoles. This is what it has become.
On average people tend to stay “plugged-in” most of their waking hours and spending time surfing the internet. Most have probably wondered where do those hours go? These kinds of questions are being thought in the first few chapters of the book. One can think of the book as somewhat a guide how to get along with the technology.
With the popularity of technology, more and more people use it to communicate and share the information with their friends. To illustrate, people can use text message and e-mail to communicate and share the information. It is more convenient than using written message. When it comes to memory, in a digital machine, 'memory' describes a binary sequence that encodes information. Limited but increasingly vast in capacity, the average memory of a computer today extends to many billions of digital bits: enough to encompass libraries of books, millions of images, weeks of film. This kind of digital data storage is in some ways superior to a human memory. So, It can really improve people's working efficiency. But if we overuse technological systems, we will lose the humanity. So, taking control is necessary.
As for reframing technology, I think that digital age is a double-edged sword. In the article, the author said that because of the prevalence of technology, teenagers have more access to Internet. But teens are willing to learn more about the dangers of the digital world rather than something useful for their studying. I think that this is a big threat to the problem of juvenile precocity. What’s more, people who are lack of self-control addicted to Virtual digital world. In this case, people will spend more time on Internet or mobile phone; they don’t want to spend time with their family. This is very terrible situation. This is why I said that digital age is a double-edged sword.
Nowadays search engines become more powerful. They observed the history of the details people surfing the Internet and record it. Throughout period of time of collection, it became strong. After some newly algorithms were invented, which decided how to choose, balance and use these information collected by many years, the powerful search engines were given birth in a digital age. Afterwards, free and open were advocated with the rise of search engines. That is to say, people can probably get whatever they want by search engines if there is someone who would like to share with you. However, a fresh conflict came into being between free and copyright that many people rely on to make a living.
Besides, the authority has been departed. Many people use social network every day. Every time you comment, or share something, you face a selection whether to believe what you want to comment or share. It means that authority is someone or something wins more audience.
Internet makes the information of pornography and sexuality spreads unprecedentedly fast. The most searched keyword in Google is love, and the second one is sex. And the loss of protection of privacy becomes a fresh problem. From my point of view, this is all starting from the Internet, search engines and social networks in a digital age. We are probably as human as others allow us to be.
Author utilizes positive and negative demonstrations to prove all his arguments such as the negative aspects of Twitter like half-truth and special-interest but finally it comes to his own viewpoint. From my point of view, Internet indeed grows in a more open, free, critical thinking road. Human relies on it and it is also affected by it in positive and negative ways. I approve the objective opinion of author. And I believe there will be a new institution around the corner, which could help solute those problems and leave people with optimistic.
In chapter 7, Tom discussed how playing games changed our way of lives and what did we get from playing games, in the meantime, what did we lost. And chapter 8 talked about the huge impact technology has on the current political movement and the challenges policy are maker facing in the digital age. The most interesting topic from these chapters is the question brought by Enrico Fermi and also the followed theoretical answers. To be honest, I rarely playing games on any electric devices, but I do spend quite a lot of time on the Internet for entertainment purposes. Could it really be the case that our technology development is forced to pause because of the worldwide addiction to computer games? Maybe at some point in the future, AI might take up our work allowing us to have a decent life without working. But I don't think the majority of us would become very lazy and abandon themselves games and pleasure. Because it's almost impossible for all the humans to live like this. Along with this lifestyle would only be empty and loneliness.
The first digital computers appeared in the 1940s. By the end of 1970s, new machines by Apple, Commodore Tandy sold thousands of unites, it is said that the digital revolution had gone public. Nowadays there are countless of people waiting for the latest technologies to arrive and are fascinated about them. You can see how far companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Sony have become. People are willing to line up at midnight at the release of some certain game or brand products for example the new IPhones or gaming consoles. This is what it has become.
On average people tend to stay “plugged-in” most of their waking hours and spending time surfing the internet. Most have probably wondered where do those hours go? These kinds of questions are being thought in the first few chapters of the book. One can think of the book as somewhat a guide how to get along with the technology.
With the popularity of technology, more and more people use it to communicate and share the information with their friends. To illustrate, people can use text message and e-mail to communicate and share the information. It is more convenient than using written message. When it comes to memory, in a digital machine, 'memory' describes a binary sequence that encodes information. Limited but increasingly vast in capacity, the average memory of a computer today extends to many billions of digital bits: enough to encompass libraries of books, millions of images, weeks of film. This kind of digital data storage is in some ways superior to a human memory. So, It can really improve people's working efficiency. But if we overuse technological systems, we will lose the humanity. So, taking control is necessary.
As for reframing technology, I think that digital age is a double-edged sword. In the article, the author said that because of the prevalence of technology, teenagers have more access to Internet. But teens are willing to learn more about the dangers of the digital world rather than something useful for their studying. I think that this is a big threat to the problem of juvenile precocity. What’s more, people who are lack of self-control addicted to Virtual digital world. In this case, people will spend more time on Internet or mobile phone; they don’t want to spend time with their family. This is very terrible situation. This is why I said that digital age is a double-edged sword.
Nowadays search engines become more powerful. They observed the history of the details people surfing the Internet and record it. Throughout period of time of collection, it became strong. After some newly algorithms were invented, which decided how to choose, balance and use these information collected by many years, the powerful search engines were given birth in a digital age. Afterwards, free and open were advocated with the rise of search engines. That is to say, people can probably get whatever they want by search engines if there is someone who would like to share with you. However, a fresh conflict came into being between free and copyright that many people rely on to make a living.
Besides, the authority has been departed. Many people use social network every day. Every time you comment, or share something, you face a selection whether to believe what you want to comment or share. It means that authority is someone or something wins more audience.
Internet makes the information of pornography and sexuality spreads unprecedentedly fast. The most searched keyword in Google is love, and the second one is sex. And the loss of protection of privacy becomes a fresh problem. From my point of view, this is all starting from the Internet, search engines and social networks in a digital age. We are probably as human as others allow us to be.
Author utilizes positive and negative demonstrations to prove all his arguments such as the negative aspects of Twitter like half-truth and special-interest but finally it comes to his own viewpoint. From my point of view, Internet indeed grows in a more open, free, critical thinking road. Human relies on it and it is also affected by it in positive and negative ways. I approve the objective opinion of author. And I believe there will be a new institution around the corner, which could help solute those problems and leave people with optimistic.
In chapter 7, Tom discussed how playing games changed our way of lives and what did we get from playing games, in the meantime, what did we lost. And chapter 8 talked about the huge impact technology has on the current political movement and the challenges policy are maker facing in the digital age. The most interesting topic from these chapters is the question brought by Enrico Fermi and also the followed theoretical answers. To be honest, I rarely playing games on any electric devices, but I do spend quite a lot of time on the Internet for entertainment purposes. Could it really be the case that our technology development is forced to pause because of the worldwide addiction to computer games? Maybe at some point in the future, AI might take up our work allowing us to have a decent life without working. But I don't think the majority of us would become very lazy and abandon themselves games and pleasure. Because it's almost impossible for all the humans to live like this. Along with this lifestyle would only be empty and loneliness.
December 14, 2013
This review was made in cooperation by Nguyen Phuong, Ville Tiira, Hoang Bao and Pauli Karjalainen.
The first thing we have to say after reading this book is that the format of it is pretty neat. 140 pages in essay form showing us all the changes which the growing presence of devices and the Internet are making to our normal life. Tom makes it clear with, not only making us see that he has a refreshingly positive view of the latest technology, but also having done a good review on how to survive in the digital age.
Throughout the evolving of computer and topics that are related, the author first wants to emphasize that technology grows incessantly and therefore, has brought back significant profits for mankind. Then, information and infrastructure no longer play an independent role any further, but they are now more important as ‘a new kind of economic and social force’. A new gateway is opened on purpose to allow people to explore new methods in the digital world. Everyday activities are now accompanied with the existence of technology. Evident benefits gained from the development of technology throughout years of history have been shown clearly to the readers, accompanied with specific and actual examples. The writer has even used himself as the most reliable case to analyze. Therefore, concerning about these pieces of experience is the best way to look further to a tomorrow where the distance between technology and human’s life becomes closer than ever.
Nowadays, people tend to stay connected, through mobile phones and some other forms of digital connection. Surveys about spending time with media have been conducted and brought back impressive results. Although watching television is still leading, using versatile and portable devices like iPhone is now approaching and promising to take the first position in near future. Tom stated clearly: ‘many people’s daily default is to be “wired” into at least one personalized form of media’, which compared to the past, is an astonishing alternation. This situation is expected to continue to happen in the future, which is not so unpredictable. Thus, knowing the way to balance between our two states; ‘wired’ and ‘unwired’, is the vital key to thrive in this time. Likewise, trying to combine some ‘unplugged’ activities in daily lives is also a solution to this problem, which has been proven to be somehow working.
He gives his ideas about social media and how people act in them nowadays by saying: ”Today, we are all commentators – just as we are also diarists, radio hosts, critics, comforters, voyeurs and our own full-time publicists.” Also he takes an example of the execution of Troy Davis, and notes how in Twitter the story didn’t have a conclusion like you’d see in the news, and how people would still talk about it after a month, still echoing things said in the past.
The author also gives his thoughts about the “dark side of digital networks” and how sometimes we become less than human online. He points out how easy it is to get our hands on pornography compared to how things were in the past, but also that unless you search for it, you won’t see it and nowadays the word ‘sex’ is not as often searched as, for example, IMDb, Wikipedia and Amazon. Tom also speaks about objectifying other people through cyber-bullying and states: “Online and in person, we are only as human as others allow us to be.”
Tom also talks about video games in both good and bad. He is able to explain different reasons for people to play video games and then analyze different aspects and effects of the hobby on the individual. Especially the fact, that he has personal experiences with actual video games, so his thoughts aren’t just based on assumptions was great. He can tell how he himself felt playing games and how the games affected his own behavior.
Politics and privacy are extremely fashionable topics right now since Snowden leaked information about NSA. With the topic being very serious, Tom had some very good points, but maybe he could have turned down the intimidation a little, so that the arguments would sound a bit closer to common people.
The conclusion is much more sufficient than the rest of the book. We feel a little disappointed when some interesting point of view, that we really cared about, is not so well-cared for. There seems to be a lot more that he could have said on both sides of the argument in a more in-depth analysis of the subject. Maybe the lack of information in some chapters is the only thing that we have to complain about the book.
The book brings a brighter view of the idea who are the real controllers, we people or all those modern technologies and devices. Keeping the ideas firmly concentrated on people, it kind of confirming that all those things were created to be interlaced in our life as to serve us, not for us to be relied on too much.
Tom is a good and very sensible writer. He puts not only his thought on what we are likely to do to encounter and handle all the positive and negative changes that the ICT age affect to our living, but he also gathers view points and researches from other writers and thinkers to strengthen his words’ power. It works perfectly, as we can see.
To say it in a nutshell, it is a complex picture of the line between the reality and the virtual (sometime considering as the mind-blowing field), as it always be. Knowing about it, then we can master it, use it for our life and thrive in it, those are what we think that are important to all of us. Tom did the great job writing all his thoughts to make the book that sensible and worth reading.
The first thing we have to say after reading this book is that the format of it is pretty neat. 140 pages in essay form showing us all the changes which the growing presence of devices and the Internet are making to our normal life. Tom makes it clear with, not only making us see that he has a refreshingly positive view of the latest technology, but also having done a good review on how to survive in the digital age.
Throughout the evolving of computer and topics that are related, the author first wants to emphasize that technology grows incessantly and therefore, has brought back significant profits for mankind. Then, information and infrastructure no longer play an independent role any further, but they are now more important as ‘a new kind of economic and social force’. A new gateway is opened on purpose to allow people to explore new methods in the digital world. Everyday activities are now accompanied with the existence of technology. Evident benefits gained from the development of technology throughout years of history have been shown clearly to the readers, accompanied with specific and actual examples. The writer has even used himself as the most reliable case to analyze. Therefore, concerning about these pieces of experience is the best way to look further to a tomorrow where the distance between technology and human’s life becomes closer than ever.
Nowadays, people tend to stay connected, through mobile phones and some other forms of digital connection. Surveys about spending time with media have been conducted and brought back impressive results. Although watching television is still leading, using versatile and portable devices like iPhone is now approaching and promising to take the first position in near future. Tom stated clearly: ‘many people’s daily default is to be “wired” into at least one personalized form of media’, which compared to the past, is an astonishing alternation. This situation is expected to continue to happen in the future, which is not so unpredictable. Thus, knowing the way to balance between our two states; ‘wired’ and ‘unwired’, is the vital key to thrive in this time. Likewise, trying to combine some ‘unplugged’ activities in daily lives is also a solution to this problem, which has been proven to be somehow working.
He gives his ideas about social media and how people act in them nowadays by saying: ”Today, we are all commentators – just as we are also diarists, radio hosts, critics, comforters, voyeurs and our own full-time publicists.” Also he takes an example of the execution of Troy Davis, and notes how in Twitter the story didn’t have a conclusion like you’d see in the news, and how people would still talk about it after a month, still echoing things said in the past.
The author also gives his thoughts about the “dark side of digital networks” and how sometimes we become less than human online. He points out how easy it is to get our hands on pornography compared to how things were in the past, but also that unless you search for it, you won’t see it and nowadays the word ‘sex’ is not as often searched as, for example, IMDb, Wikipedia and Amazon. Tom also speaks about objectifying other people through cyber-bullying and states: “Online and in person, we are only as human as others allow us to be.”
Tom also talks about video games in both good and bad. He is able to explain different reasons for people to play video games and then analyze different aspects and effects of the hobby on the individual. Especially the fact, that he has personal experiences with actual video games, so his thoughts aren’t just based on assumptions was great. He can tell how he himself felt playing games and how the games affected his own behavior.
Politics and privacy are extremely fashionable topics right now since Snowden leaked information about NSA. With the topic being very serious, Tom had some very good points, but maybe he could have turned down the intimidation a little, so that the arguments would sound a bit closer to common people.
The conclusion is much more sufficient than the rest of the book. We feel a little disappointed when some interesting point of view, that we really cared about, is not so well-cared for. There seems to be a lot more that he could have said on both sides of the argument in a more in-depth analysis of the subject. Maybe the lack of information in some chapters is the only thing that we have to complain about the book.
The book brings a brighter view of the idea who are the real controllers, we people or all those modern technologies and devices. Keeping the ideas firmly concentrated on people, it kind of confirming that all those things were created to be interlaced in our life as to serve us, not for us to be relied on too much.
Tom is a good and very sensible writer. He puts not only his thought on what we are likely to do to encounter and handle all the positive and negative changes that the ICT age affect to our living, but he also gathers view points and researches from other writers and thinkers to strengthen his words’ power. It works perfectly, as we can see.
To say it in a nutshell, it is a complex picture of the line between the reality and the virtual (sometime considering as the mind-blowing field), as it always be. Knowing about it, then we can master it, use it for our life and thrive in it, those are what we think that are important to all of us. Tom did the great job writing all his thoughts to make the book that sensible and worth reading.
December 6, 2013
-- This review was done in the cooperation with Liliana, Hartwig and Ngoc. Thanks for your reading our book review --
Since the beginnings of the computers, the community has asked questions about how the digitalization of the life has affected society and what its effect will be to the whole world over the time. Several studies done, opinions proposed and arguments started, Tom Chatfield’s book ‘’How to thrive in the digital age’’ is a brilliant work for broad and open mind readers, who are willing to see the pros and cons of the digital media boom that has taken over the world in the last decades.
For the few tens of years, when computers and other types of digital media have become a vital part in our daily life, there have been many debates and research done about the harms that the digitalisation does to the society as well as the advancements it offers. Chatfield, British writer and commentator, takes a moment to go through some of those most vital points -,how it (The digital media) affects our social life and also what do we use them for, as well as how it changes us or has the potential of changing us; from personal issues like leisure, privacy to the community-important topics like politics etc.
As Mr. Chatfield mentions indirectly, the society has always advanced and digital era is one part of it all, therefore it's important that you do not lose yourself into it. Online world offers us seemingly the very same possibilities as the ones that real life can, but it's not entirely true as the online socializing restricts us from information of, for example, facial expressions and tones, which may change the meaning of the simplest conversation easily. That we are wired, connected like millions of people through social networks are almost all the time, and we receive the sensation of social interaction with perfect ease. But the reality is still the same, while we are sitting in our rooms, wired as we socialize; therefore, actually we lose the skill to do it in reality. Face-to-face conversations seem to run short. The more preferred the use of different types of social media and messaging systems become, the more it re-shapes the community as we know it today that we are losing who we were in return for a very restricted and isolated life.
The above-mentioned issue is connected with what is described in the first chapter of the book ''From past to present'', which shows the influence on us, caused by this new era and everything that comes with it.
Mr.Chatfield states ''A mobile phone is often the first thing you touch when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you touch when you go to bed at night.'' and with this simple statement, he easily emphasizes how the digital media changes the society. Surely, he speaks about the ''Digital natives'' as those more affected, but, in reality, nobody really is safe from this influence, even if it might not come quite neither naturally nor addictive in manner as for these so-called natives.
Quite fluently the book transits from the topic of how much time is spent for wired state to the need of finding completely offline moments sometimes. However, in the current world it's hard to stay unwired without actually specifically focusing on achieving that. It might sound that the book tries to imply that we are forced to be wired, but the author has a great way of addressing the topics in the book to keep an open view by pointing out the good and the bad and instead of pressuring either of the opinions, the book encourages the readers to remember about things like the value of face-to-face interactions, the solitude of not being in a crowd, or, this case - online society-, at all times, as well as the ability to embrace the advancement that is provided.
Although many people seem aggressive when saying that internet makes people less human than before, this book's tone is quite natural. Unlike belief of most people, “sex” is not the most searched-for term on the internet- like Chatfield mentions in this book. Unless you really want to search for it, you will never see those sites. And to keep the internet safe for everyone, the code of conduct has been applied, the most important part being “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn't say in person”
Mr. Chatfield also mentions the topic of video games, which is a popular subject for discussion. Being a W.o.W gamer himself, some would argue that his views on the gaming influence might not be entirely reasonable, yet he once again surprises the readers with his approach of thought and the way he words his understanding, making some valid points on the go. In Chatfiled’s point of view, playing online games can put the economics forward and increase the learning ability of human, like when we play the “physics based game” Angry Birds. As the conclusion for this part, he stated “Play is safe state in which we we learn skills. We play in order to practice for life”.
In the end, Tom Chatfield's ''How to thrive in the digital age'' is a great book on this rather popular topic and is definitely worth to read, as it's attractive and very intriguing work with it's light, non-pressuring but meaningful approach to many issues in our, still rather young, online community.
-- This review was done in the cooperation with Liliana, Hartwig and Ngoc. Thanks for your reading our book review --
Since the beginnings of the computers, the community has asked questions about how the digitalization of the life has affected society and what its effect will be to the whole world over the time. Several studies done, opinions proposed and arguments started, Tom Chatfield’s book ‘’How to thrive in the digital age’’ is a brilliant work for broad and open mind readers, who are willing to see the pros and cons of the digital media boom that has taken over the world in the last decades.
For the few tens of years, when computers and other types of digital media have become a vital part in our daily life, there have been many debates and research done about the harms that the digitalisation does to the society as well as the advancements it offers. Chatfield, British writer and commentator, takes a moment to go through some of those most vital points -,how it (The digital media) affects our social life and also what do we use them for, as well as how it changes us or has the potential of changing us; from personal issues like leisure, privacy to the community-important topics like politics etc.
As Mr. Chatfield mentions indirectly, the society has always advanced and digital era is one part of it all, therefore it's important that you do not lose yourself into it. Online world offers us seemingly the very same possibilities as the ones that real life can, but it's not entirely true as the online socializing restricts us from information of, for example, facial expressions and tones, which may change the meaning of the simplest conversation easily. That we are wired, connected like millions of people through social networks are almost all the time, and we receive the sensation of social interaction with perfect ease. But the reality is still the same, while we are sitting in our rooms, wired as we socialize; therefore, actually we lose the skill to do it in reality. Face-to-face conversations seem to run short. The more preferred the use of different types of social media and messaging systems become, the more it re-shapes the community as we know it today that we are losing who we were in return for a very restricted and isolated life.
The above-mentioned issue is connected with what is described in the first chapter of the book ''From past to present'', which shows the influence on us, caused by this new era and everything that comes with it.
Mr.Chatfield states ''A mobile phone is often the first thing you touch when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you touch when you go to bed at night.'' and with this simple statement, he easily emphasizes how the digital media changes the society. Surely, he speaks about the ''Digital natives'' as those more affected, but, in reality, nobody really is safe from this influence, even if it might not come quite neither naturally nor addictive in manner as for these so-called natives.
Quite fluently the book transits from the topic of how much time is spent for wired state to the need of finding completely offline moments sometimes. However, in the current world it's hard to stay unwired without actually specifically focusing on achieving that. It might sound that the book tries to imply that we are forced to be wired, but the author has a great way of addressing the topics in the book to keep an open view by pointing out the good and the bad and instead of pressuring either of the opinions, the book encourages the readers to remember about things like the value of face-to-face interactions, the solitude of not being in a crowd, or, this case - online society-, at all times, as well as the ability to embrace the advancement that is provided.
Although many people seem aggressive when saying that internet makes people less human than before, this book's tone is quite natural. Unlike belief of most people, “sex” is not the most searched-for term on the internet- like Chatfield mentions in this book. Unless you really want to search for it, you will never see those sites. And to keep the internet safe for everyone, the code of conduct has been applied, the most important part being “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn't say in person”
Mr. Chatfield also mentions the topic of video games, which is a popular subject for discussion. Being a W.o.W gamer himself, some would argue that his views on the gaming influence might not be entirely reasonable, yet he once again surprises the readers with his approach of thought and the way he words his understanding, making some valid points on the go. In Chatfiled’s point of view, playing online games can put the economics forward and increase the learning ability of human, like when we play the “physics based game” Angry Birds. As the conclusion for this part, he stated “Play is safe state in which we we learn skills. We play in order to practice for life”.
In the end, Tom Chatfield's ''How to thrive in the digital age'' is a great book on this rather popular topic and is definitely worth to read, as it's attractive and very intriguing work with it's light, non-pressuring but meaningful approach to many issues in our, still rather young, online community.
-- This review was done in the cooperation with Liliana, Hartwig and Ngoc. Thanks for your reading our book review --
December 3, 2013
How to thrive in the digital age? Can we even handle the digitalization?
Revolutionary technology
Digitalization has changed the norms of everyday life. Tom Chatfield’s book gives us various insights and facts of how to survive in this digital age. Tom has packed an enormous amount of information in this lightweight book. More than 50% of people’s waking hours is spent “plugged-in” and that is considered quite normal. This would have sounded outrageous 15 years ago, but today it is even a compulsion to stay plugged-in or you may be left out of the development.
Digital technology has experienced it’s most rapid developing period over the last 20 years. First electronic digital computers were developed in the 1940s. Back then, you couldn’t imagine anything like the current state of digital devices, even in your wildest dreams. Mr. Chatfield gives a great insight how did this all happen over the years. Where are we now? Heavy use of digital devices is modernity. We will definitely have some troubles on surviving, not to mention thriving, in this digitalized age.
Tom’s perspective on time is very enjoyable. “Time is the one quantity of which all the world’s technology cannot conjure a particle anymore” We can’t control time with technology. Digitalization has taken a hold of us. As said, more than half of people’s waking hours is spent “plugged-in”. This is obviously reducing our time capacity, what we would otherwise spend on reading books, studying, practicing sports or socializing, for example. In the other hand we can now perform our tasks quicker, since digitalization has brought us easily accessible data, innovative and quick ways to implement solutions and fast communication channels. It brings a lot of good, but there is always a downside for everything. Tom has also given a good insight on multitasking. Thanks to technology, we are at our best and most efficient when putting the strings together.
Tom Chatfield also shares his very broad view on Google – although it is one of the biggest corporations in the world, it is nothing more than a tool and a verb for most of us. Tom gives a fine introduction to the Googleplex, Google’s headquarters that is located in California, and explains how much more Google is to him now, after his visit, and that Google is, after all, made by real people just as are the shoes you wear daily. The author covers widely the aspects of search engines and how they, especially Google, were developed to be what they are now.
According to Mr. Chatfield, digital media should become a field of study in the modern world, alongside literacy, numeracy and science. Making the school system more modern is a great idea, and the growth of digitalization soon requires it. It is unfortunately true that kids these days need to learn a lot of the dangers encountered in the internet – everyone’s privacy, identity and security need to be taken care of and the methods should be taught, and this is what Tom hopes to happen in the near future.
As quite a surprising and odd addition to the book, Tom Chatfield writes about pornography, previously a very shunned business which has come to almost anyone’s reach with the development of the digital age. It is true that pornography and things related to sexuality are more than easily accessible and that has its good and bad sides. Even though sites related to those subjects seem to be among the most common, it’s quite soothing to read that sites like Amazon, Wikipedia, IMDb and various other similar services are a lot more interesting to the world.
Chatfield briefly goes through the amount of time we use on games and how that affects our thoughts about real life. He writes about how we need to borrow some aspects from video games. How come we get hooked up to games so easily? He believes it is because we get all kinds of achievements while we play video games and that makes us feel better. If we would get some sort of commendation every time we do something right wouldn’t that just make us spoiled little brats? In the same chapter he compares of buying new jeans and buying a new outfit for his World of Warcraft character and says it is the same thing. That describes how badly somebody can mix real life and virtual life.
I believe Chatfield meant by the title of the book – How to thrive in the Digital Age, that we should all consider when have we crossed the line for using too much digital devices. While I was reading this book it occurred to me that Tom is basically going through our everyday life in just one book. But the fact that everybody uses technology all the time and everywhere is not a shock. We all know if we would not have all the digital gadgets we have now, our life would be much more challenging than it currently is. Although, Tom Chatfield makes some good points in the book, there isn’t really much we didn’t already know about the subjects. Maybe for someone who doesn’t know that much about social media, games and all the different things that we use daily because of digitalization, this book could provide some new information but for me at least this was just repeating the obvious.
Revolutionary technology
Digitalization has changed the norms of everyday life. Tom Chatfield’s book gives us various insights and facts of how to survive in this digital age. Tom has packed an enormous amount of information in this lightweight book. More than 50% of people’s waking hours is spent “plugged-in” and that is considered quite normal. This would have sounded outrageous 15 years ago, but today it is even a compulsion to stay plugged-in or you may be left out of the development.
Digital technology has experienced it’s most rapid developing period over the last 20 years. First electronic digital computers were developed in the 1940s. Back then, you couldn’t imagine anything like the current state of digital devices, even in your wildest dreams. Mr. Chatfield gives a great insight how did this all happen over the years. Where are we now? Heavy use of digital devices is modernity. We will definitely have some troubles on surviving, not to mention thriving, in this digitalized age.
Tom’s perspective on time is very enjoyable. “Time is the one quantity of which all the world’s technology cannot conjure a particle anymore” We can’t control time with technology. Digitalization has taken a hold of us. As said, more than half of people’s waking hours is spent “plugged-in”. This is obviously reducing our time capacity, what we would otherwise spend on reading books, studying, practicing sports or socializing, for example. In the other hand we can now perform our tasks quicker, since digitalization has brought us easily accessible data, innovative and quick ways to implement solutions and fast communication channels. It brings a lot of good, but there is always a downside for everything. Tom has also given a good insight on multitasking. Thanks to technology, we are at our best and most efficient when putting the strings together.
Tom Chatfield also shares his very broad view on Google – although it is one of the biggest corporations in the world, it is nothing more than a tool and a verb for most of us. Tom gives a fine introduction to the Googleplex, Google’s headquarters that is located in California, and explains how much more Google is to him now, after his visit, and that Google is, after all, made by real people just as are the shoes you wear daily. The author covers widely the aspects of search engines and how they, especially Google, were developed to be what they are now.
According to Mr. Chatfield, digital media should become a field of study in the modern world, alongside literacy, numeracy and science. Making the school system more modern is a great idea, and the growth of digitalization soon requires it. It is unfortunately true that kids these days need to learn a lot of the dangers encountered in the internet – everyone’s privacy, identity and security need to be taken care of and the methods should be taught, and this is what Tom hopes to happen in the near future.
As quite a surprising and odd addition to the book, Tom Chatfield writes about pornography, previously a very shunned business which has come to almost anyone’s reach with the development of the digital age. It is true that pornography and things related to sexuality are more than easily accessible and that has its good and bad sides. Even though sites related to those subjects seem to be among the most common, it’s quite soothing to read that sites like Amazon, Wikipedia, IMDb and various other similar services are a lot more interesting to the world.
Chatfield briefly goes through the amount of time we use on games and how that affects our thoughts about real life. He writes about how we need to borrow some aspects from video games. How come we get hooked up to games so easily? He believes it is because we get all kinds of achievements while we play video games and that makes us feel better. If we would get some sort of commendation every time we do something right wouldn’t that just make us spoiled little brats? In the same chapter he compares of buying new jeans and buying a new outfit for his World of Warcraft character and says it is the same thing. That describes how badly somebody can mix real life and virtual life.
I believe Chatfield meant by the title of the book – How to thrive in the Digital Age, that we should all consider when have we crossed the line for using too much digital devices. While I was reading this book it occurred to me that Tom is basically going through our everyday life in just one book. But the fact that everybody uses technology all the time and everywhere is not a shock. We all know if we would not have all the digital gadgets we have now, our life would be much more challenging than it currently is. Although, Tom Chatfield makes some good points in the book, there isn’t really much we didn’t already know about the subjects. Maybe for someone who doesn’t know that much about social media, games and all the different things that we use daily because of digitalization, this book could provide some new information but for me at least this was just repeating the obvious.
August 24, 2012
How should we adapt our personal and professional lives to the new tools of digital communication? Answers tend to polarise between hopes that the digital revolution is the answer to all our problems and fears that it’s the end of civilisation as we know it.
How to Thrive in the Digital Age is an attempt to answer the question by Tom Chatfield, in a slim volume from a series edited by Alain de Botton and published by The School of Life. (You might prefer How to Worry Less about Money or, de Botton's own contribution, How to Think More about Sex.)
As an online games enthusiast and consultant to the likes of Google, Chatfield might be expected to be a digital cheerleader, but his view is more nuanced. He advocates time away from all digital devices in order to reassert our individuality. He tells us he prefers to draft his writing using - shock, horror - a pen and paper. And he sympathises with the worries of Jaron Lanier whose You Are Not a Gadget is another essay by someone from the techy world with serious reservations about how the revolution is playing out.
The strength of Chatfield’s thesis is its range, taking in classical thinkers, the history of computing and his own anecdotal experience. He urges us to think about the psychology of how we navigate the digital world:
“Veiled behind ever greater complexities, we perpetually risk distancing ourselves from fully committed relationships with each other, and from fully introspective relationships with ourselves.”
He may be right - and someone needs to start the conversation. It’s hard to shrug off some of the evidence: can it really not matter that surveys of US teenagers in 1999 and 2009 found that their average daily use of media had risen from six hours and 20 minutes to seven hours and 40 minutes?
Chatfield points out that the default position now is for media to be available. ‘Quiet carriages’, for instance, designate media-free zones, but their very existence highlights what we think of as normal. It is only by cutting ourselves off from media that we can accentuate what is most characteristic of ourselves, he argues. In writing, for instance, a degree of isolation and a little serendipity to let the mind wander produces “something that both has rigour and belongs to me alone”.
The worry is that no person or institution is in a position to monitor and control the balance between technology’s advantages and its excesses. While individuals fumble for the best way to behave (and to try to get their children to behave), the companies at the centre of the revolution are driven both by profits and - to give them the benefit of the doubt - a desire to improve and expand their services. As they are always happy to remind us, we are only using them because we choose to.
The metaphor for tech adoption that springs to mind most readily is that of addiction. Digital services and devices ‘hook’ us and we are powerless to resist, most obviously in the world of gaming. One study found that the unemployed who used the virtual world Second Life found it almost as satisfying as getting a job. A dangerous case of escaping into a fantasy world created by software?
But the line between the real and the virtual isn’t as clear as it might seem. When real money is used to buy virtual goods in an online game, is that so different from real money buying an ordinary pair of jeans with a fancy label for a much higher price? What is sport but life lived in a codified and relatively consequence-free setting? And what is money but a token of invented value based on collective belief?
It’s a complex picture, and Chatfield is far from a Jeremiah. For instance, he sees some of the biggest beneficiaries of the new communications technologies being the elderly and the socially disadvantaged. But, as he concludes, the subject begs questions about the very nature of our humanity and social ties.
As I finished the book, I was on holiday in France. One evening we went to an outdoor concert in the local village. A choir of elderly men sang traditional songs to an audience of a couple of hundred people of all ages, sitting on benches, drinking (in moderation), tapping and singing along. It was the very picture of a strong community. Then it struck me: there were no mobile devices to be seen. Nobody was taking pictures, texting, checking Facebook or tweeting. I looked out for any signs of modern technology. All I saw, all evening, was one girl using her mobile - to speak to someone.
Chatfield notes that many of the most popular virtual worlds have pastoral settings. Was my imagined picture of rural contentment just another example of an urban mind in search of a simpler life? Maybe, but the balance between the virtues of direct, physical communication and those of multiple online relationships is surely worth considering. We shouldn’t just accept mindlessly, in the words of Kevin Kelly’s influential book about all this, What Technology Wants.
How to Thrive in the Digital Age is an attempt to answer the question by Tom Chatfield, in a slim volume from a series edited by Alain de Botton and published by The School of Life. (You might prefer How to Worry Less about Money or, de Botton's own contribution, How to Think More about Sex.)
As an online games enthusiast and consultant to the likes of Google, Chatfield might be expected to be a digital cheerleader, but his view is more nuanced. He advocates time away from all digital devices in order to reassert our individuality. He tells us he prefers to draft his writing using - shock, horror - a pen and paper. And he sympathises with the worries of Jaron Lanier whose You Are Not a Gadget is another essay by someone from the techy world with serious reservations about how the revolution is playing out.
The strength of Chatfield’s thesis is its range, taking in classical thinkers, the history of computing and his own anecdotal experience. He urges us to think about the psychology of how we navigate the digital world:
“Veiled behind ever greater complexities, we perpetually risk distancing ourselves from fully committed relationships with each other, and from fully introspective relationships with ourselves.”
He may be right - and someone needs to start the conversation. It’s hard to shrug off some of the evidence: can it really not matter that surveys of US teenagers in 1999 and 2009 found that their average daily use of media had risen from six hours and 20 minutes to seven hours and 40 minutes?
Chatfield points out that the default position now is for media to be available. ‘Quiet carriages’, for instance, designate media-free zones, but their very existence highlights what we think of as normal. It is only by cutting ourselves off from media that we can accentuate what is most characteristic of ourselves, he argues. In writing, for instance, a degree of isolation and a little serendipity to let the mind wander produces “something that both has rigour and belongs to me alone”.
The worry is that no person or institution is in a position to monitor and control the balance between technology’s advantages and its excesses. While individuals fumble for the best way to behave (and to try to get their children to behave), the companies at the centre of the revolution are driven both by profits and - to give them the benefit of the doubt - a desire to improve and expand their services. As they are always happy to remind us, we are only using them because we choose to.
The metaphor for tech adoption that springs to mind most readily is that of addiction. Digital services and devices ‘hook’ us and we are powerless to resist, most obviously in the world of gaming. One study found that the unemployed who used the virtual world Second Life found it almost as satisfying as getting a job. A dangerous case of escaping into a fantasy world created by software?
But the line between the real and the virtual isn’t as clear as it might seem. When real money is used to buy virtual goods in an online game, is that so different from real money buying an ordinary pair of jeans with a fancy label for a much higher price? What is sport but life lived in a codified and relatively consequence-free setting? And what is money but a token of invented value based on collective belief?
It’s a complex picture, and Chatfield is far from a Jeremiah. For instance, he sees some of the biggest beneficiaries of the new communications technologies being the elderly and the socially disadvantaged. But, as he concludes, the subject begs questions about the very nature of our humanity and social ties.
As I finished the book, I was on holiday in France. One evening we went to an outdoor concert in the local village. A choir of elderly men sang traditional songs to an audience of a couple of hundred people of all ages, sitting on benches, drinking (in moderation), tapping and singing along. It was the very picture of a strong community. Then it struck me: there were no mobile devices to be seen. Nobody was taking pictures, texting, checking Facebook or tweeting. I looked out for any signs of modern technology. All I saw, all evening, was one girl using her mobile - to speak to someone.
Chatfield notes that many of the most popular virtual worlds have pastoral settings. Was my imagined picture of rural contentment just another example of an urban mind in search of a simpler life? Maybe, but the balance between the virtues of direct, physical communication and those of multiple online relationships is surely worth considering. We shouldn’t just accept mindlessly, in the words of Kevin Kelly’s influential book about all this, What Technology Wants.
December 17, 2013
Tom Chatfield talks about his beliefs and oppinions in his book called "How to Thrive in The Digital Afe", regarding today's technological surroundings and environment, how they affect us as human beings and where are we headed. Chatfields insightful thoughts contain alot of basic elements of how we've created today's technological environment and they are very easy to understand and relate to. In first chapters he shares his point of views of kind of obvious facts about the history and growth of technology. There are though couple of interesting facts that might not be familiar for many people. For example the number of available IP-addresses there are now with the latest IPv6 protocol which is currently being taken in use. He talks about how us as humans should take an advantage over technology and how can we get the most benefits out of it. He discusses whether or not we are able to realize our potential with technology and there on survive as mankind.
Mr. Chatfield also looks on the dark side of technology whereby he puts it that it’s now easier to obtain or view pornography in the internet which is almost exactly like everything else in the digital realm. He goes on to write that pornography has been altered by the internet and has lost whatever residual innocence or coyness it may have once had. The author emphasizes on the need of legislation and guarding against-something that technology has both facilitated and made more challenging, especially sexual abuse, trafficking and illegal forms of pornography. Tom Chatfield goes ahead to quote a British philosopher Roger Scruton, who offers a warning in which our freedom to like as fully human being is damaged when we cut ourselves off from ‘the world of human relations…………with its conflicts, risks, and responsibilities’.
As Geoffrey Miller (an American psychologist), put it, ‘rather than build a heaven on earth, we might simply someday simply opt out of actuality’ is a quote that Mr. Tom Chatfield has used when he writes about the issues in the video game industry. Humanity now collectively spends more than three billion hours a week on electronic games, a number that is steadily increasing. At this age there is a mass migration of human effort, attention, relationships and identities towards artificial environments which are designed to only entertain and enthrall us. Mr. Chatfield points out that the implications for users of virtual environments are double-edged, since the time they spend in them often pays off richly in terms of emotional rewards while on the other hand it returns us to real life’s limitation as a source of satisfaction when contrasted with simulated environments. The big question therefore remains whether we should aim to improve the real world, intervene against the seduction of virtual one, or both?
In the end Chatfield closely examines how this new technology has shifted the boundaries around different kinds of political experience. He also acknowledges the fact how digital media has moved steadily from simply reporting the politics of our time to actively helping to create them.
In conclusion, I think the topic ‘How to Thrive in the Digital Age’ is relevant for the book as the author points out different aspects of technology that has shaped our life today and how we can improve so as to ‘thrive’ in it.
Mr. Chatfield also looks on the dark side of technology whereby he puts it that it’s now easier to obtain or view pornography in the internet which is almost exactly like everything else in the digital realm. He goes on to write that pornography has been altered by the internet and has lost whatever residual innocence or coyness it may have once had. The author emphasizes on the need of legislation and guarding against-something that technology has both facilitated and made more challenging, especially sexual abuse, trafficking and illegal forms of pornography. Tom Chatfield goes ahead to quote a British philosopher Roger Scruton, who offers a warning in which our freedom to like as fully human being is damaged when we cut ourselves off from ‘the world of human relations…………with its conflicts, risks, and responsibilities’.
As Geoffrey Miller (an American psychologist), put it, ‘rather than build a heaven on earth, we might simply someday simply opt out of actuality’ is a quote that Mr. Tom Chatfield has used when he writes about the issues in the video game industry. Humanity now collectively spends more than three billion hours a week on electronic games, a number that is steadily increasing. At this age there is a mass migration of human effort, attention, relationships and identities towards artificial environments which are designed to only entertain and enthrall us. Mr. Chatfield points out that the implications for users of virtual environments are double-edged, since the time they spend in them often pays off richly in terms of emotional rewards while on the other hand it returns us to real life’s limitation as a source of satisfaction when contrasted with simulated environments. The big question therefore remains whether we should aim to improve the real world, intervene against the seduction of virtual one, or both?
In the end Chatfield closely examines how this new technology has shifted the boundaries around different kinds of political experience. He also acknowledges the fact how digital media has moved steadily from simply reporting the politics of our time to actively helping to create them.
In conclusion, I think the topic ‘How to Thrive in the Digital Age’ is relevant for the book as the author points out different aspects of technology that has shaped our life today and how we can improve so as to ‘thrive’ in it.
December 14, 2013
We are increasingly more and more involved in our technologies, but we do not understand them and their meanings. This book provides useful insight on the different factors that affect us, how to perceive concepts and most importantly not losing what it means to be human by having “me” time without our technologies.
The book itself is a short 160 page read that covers a lot of different aspects about the digital world rather than just biased views like “The internet is bad” or “Everyone should be on the internet” also debunking some of the age old sayings like how the most searched material on the internet is pornographic in nature. It is part of a series called “The School of Life” some of the others books can be seen at:
The School of Life
Without becoming an overly technical operating manual for the “Digital World” this book focuses on key elements and smart viewpoints about the impact of the digital age on our lives and how this impact is going at a break neck speed. As more and more people interact in a digital way it is only natural that some concepts like privacy and cyberbullying will make their way to heated debates which is also in itself an observation made in the book should topics and debates on these types of digital/digital related parts of our life’s not be included in education.
"Computers are the first truly universal medium: mechanisms of an almost limitless flexibility" – Tom Chatfield.
There are some witty thoughts about how a mobile device may be the first thing that you touch:
A. When you wake up.
B. When you go to sleep.
Before reading this book nearly anyone with a smart device is most likely guilty of this ritual but by pointing it out Tom challenges our perception of the invading nature of the “Always on” nature of our modern technology, it’s these observations that make this book a very enjoyable read without bombarding you with technical jargon.
"less than a century ago the live wire of the radio broadcast was considered close to a miracle" – Tom Chatfield
Tom Chatfield is a British writer and commentator. The author of five books exploring digital culture, “How to Thrive in the Digital Age” (his most recent book). More information on the author and recent works can be found at:
Tom Chatfields website
A thoroughly good read only that gives you just enough but leaves you wanting to find out more which in my opinion is what a good book should do.
The book itself is a short 160 page read that covers a lot of different aspects about the digital world rather than just biased views like “The internet is bad” or “Everyone should be on the internet” also debunking some of the age old sayings like how the most searched material on the internet is pornographic in nature. It is part of a series called “The School of Life” some of the others books can be seen at:
The School of Life
Without becoming an overly technical operating manual for the “Digital World” this book focuses on key elements and smart viewpoints about the impact of the digital age on our lives and how this impact is going at a break neck speed. As more and more people interact in a digital way it is only natural that some concepts like privacy and cyberbullying will make their way to heated debates which is also in itself an observation made in the book should topics and debates on these types of digital/digital related parts of our life’s not be included in education.
"Computers are the first truly universal medium: mechanisms of an almost limitless flexibility" – Tom Chatfield.
There are some witty thoughts about how a mobile device may be the first thing that you touch:
A. When you wake up.
B. When you go to sleep.
Before reading this book nearly anyone with a smart device is most likely guilty of this ritual but by pointing it out Tom challenges our perception of the invading nature of the “Always on” nature of our modern technology, it’s these observations that make this book a very enjoyable read without bombarding you with technical jargon.
"less than a century ago the live wire of the radio broadcast was considered close to a miracle" – Tom Chatfield
Tom Chatfield is a British writer and commentator. The author of five books exploring digital culture, “How to Thrive in the Digital Age” (his most recent book). More information on the author and recent works can be found at:
Tom Chatfields website
A thoroughly good read only that gives you just enough but leaves you wanting to find out more which in my opinion is what a good book should do.
March 29, 2019
A quick but insightful read which presents 8 arguments all revolving around “the cultural, political and ethical values implicated in the emerging facts of digital technology.”
Particularly thought-provoking is merely reflecting on the social and political changes/events which have taken place over the last seven years since this book was first published. Technology moves so quickly that some of Chatfield’s notes almost feel like ancient history, but that fact simply made this book even more interesting to read today.
Particularly thought-provoking is merely reflecting on the social and political changes/events which have taken place over the last seven years since this book was first published. Technology moves so quickly that some of Chatfield’s notes almost feel like ancient history, but that fact simply made this book even more interesting to read today.
December 14, 2013
(Reviewed with Tung Khuat, Junqing Liao and Hanyu Ji)
In “How to Thrive in the Digital Age” the author Tom Chatfield attempts, in 8 short chapters, to address the most prevalent concerns of digital technology seeping into our every waking moment, and also to provide some history on the evolution of digital technology and explain the successes of some companies, services and phenomenona surrounding the subject. The topics range from the aforementioned history and explanations to tips to using social media and contemplating the nature of virtual objects and the role of technology in some recent events.
Chatfield brings into attention how we’re always connected in one way or another and have a multitude of ways of entertaining ourselves. We can contact faraway people in the blink of an eye through social media services and do our shopping and banking online. We are also told about the negative effects of the Digital Age, including declined attention span and addiction to being connected.
If we want to thrive in the digital age, we have to stop seeing technology as a thing that we simply use. We have to protect it and create it and control it, we could build better lives with it.
Although the issues are current, none of his points seem particularly new or original by the time of writing this review (2013) but they are illustrated with easily understandable examples and the order in which matters are discussed is logical and the amount of information quite condensed, which makes the book easy to read, though some readers interested in the topics are left discontent. Fortunately for them, Chatfield often directs readers to other, more specific authors and titles.
The book’s message, that we should embrace new technology but with utmost care, that we should keep on with the times without running headlong into anything is clear, if not obvious.
A good and a quick read, but may not change your world.
In “How to Thrive in the Digital Age” the author Tom Chatfield attempts, in 8 short chapters, to address the most prevalent concerns of digital technology seeping into our every waking moment, and also to provide some history on the evolution of digital technology and explain the successes of some companies, services and phenomenona surrounding the subject. The topics range from the aforementioned history and explanations to tips to using social media and contemplating the nature of virtual objects and the role of technology in some recent events.
Chatfield brings into attention how we’re always connected in one way or another and have a multitude of ways of entertaining ourselves. We can contact faraway people in the blink of an eye through social media services and do our shopping and banking online. We are also told about the negative effects of the Digital Age, including declined attention span and addiction to being connected.
If we want to thrive in the digital age, we have to stop seeing technology as a thing that we simply use. We have to protect it and create it and control it, we could build better lives with it.
Although the issues are current, none of his points seem particularly new or original by the time of writing this review (2013) but they are illustrated with easily understandable examples and the order in which matters are discussed is logical and the amount of information quite condensed, which makes the book easy to read, though some readers interested in the topics are left discontent. Fortunately for them, Chatfield often directs readers to other, more specific authors and titles.
The book’s message, that we should embrace new technology but with utmost care, that we should keep on with the times without running headlong into anything is clear, if not obvious.
A good and a quick read, but may not change your world.
July 20, 2014
Este é primeiro livro que eu leio sobre o assunto e gostei bastante.
No começo é meio enrolado e chega a parecer repetitivo, mas da metade em diante o livro passa do 'bom' para o 'ótimo'. Os capítulos "Compartilhamento, expertise e o fim da autoridade" (sobre nossa influência em redes sociais), "Diversão e prazer" (fuga da realidade através de jogos) e "A nova forma de se fazer política" (como as pessoas têm usado as redes sociais e internet para se manifestar sobre política) são excelentes.
Outra parte legal, é que na 'conclusão' o autor sugere de forma bem simpática diversos livros e sites para quem quer se aprofundar sobre o assunto e/ou melhorar sua qualidade de 'vida online'.
Bacana também que o autor menciona (brevemente) livros que eu gosto muito: "A Insustentável Leveza do Ser" de Milan Kundera, "O Mundo Assombrado pelos Demônios" de Carl Sagan, e "Admirável Mundo Novo" de Aldous Huxley. (Será que eu e o autor temos um gosto parecido para leitura!? haha :P)
Enfim, acho que publicações sobre este tema triplicarão nos próximos anos: há muito o que ser discutido e principalmente pelo fato de que a 'era digital' é uma constante em nossas vidas da qual ainda somos meros aprendizes.
No começo é meio enrolado e chega a parecer repetitivo, mas da metade em diante o livro passa do 'bom' para o 'ótimo'. Os capítulos "Compartilhamento, expertise e o fim da autoridade" (sobre nossa influência em redes sociais), "Diversão e prazer" (fuga da realidade através de jogos) e "A nova forma de se fazer política" (como as pessoas têm usado as redes sociais e internet para se manifestar sobre política) são excelentes.
Outra parte legal, é que na 'conclusão' o autor sugere de forma bem simpática diversos livros e sites para quem quer se aprofundar sobre o assunto e/ou melhorar sua qualidade de 'vida online'.
Bacana também que o autor menciona (brevemente) livros que eu gosto muito: "A Insustentável Leveza do Ser" de Milan Kundera, "O Mundo Assombrado pelos Demônios" de Carl Sagan, e "Admirável Mundo Novo" de Aldous Huxley. (Será que eu e o autor temos um gosto parecido para leitura!? haha :P)
Enfim, acho que publicações sobre este tema triplicarão nos próximos anos: há muito o que ser discutido e principalmente pelo fato de que a 'era digital' é uma constante em nossas vidas da qual ainda somos meros aprendizes.
May 17, 2014
First of all; the format is pretty neat. 140 pages in essay'ish style on how the ever growing presence of always-on devices and the internet are changing our lives -- and some thoughts on what we must do to counter this, gathering research and points from other authors and thinkers. It works.
I think the point made in this book is best summed up by this quote from the conclusion:
Well put.
I think the point made in this book is best summed up by this quote from the conclusion:
"We must, I believe, look to the nature of our experiences rather than the tools creating them if we hope to understand the present. We must cherish the best of these experiences but also carve out a space apart from technology in our lives, and take control of our attention, apportioning our time knowingly rather than allowing always-on devices to dictate the texture of every moment. This means finding a balance within our habits both of thought and of action - and believing that it is possible to assert different ways of thinking and being against the pressures of constant connection."
Well put.
February 14, 2013
First of all; the format is pretty neat. 140 pages in essay'ish style on how the ever growing presence of always-on devices and the internet are changing our lives -- and some thoughts on what we must do to counter this, gathering research and points from other authors and thinkers. It works.
I think the point made in this book is best summed up by this quote from the conclusion:
Well put.
I think the point made in this book is best summed up by this quote from the conclusion:
"We must, I believe, look to the nature of our experiences rather than the tools creating them if we hope to understand the present. We must cherish the best of these experiences but also carve out a space apart from technology in our lives, and take control of our attention, apportioning our time knowingly rather than allowing always-on devices to dictate the texture of every moment. This means finding a balance within our habits both of thought and of action - and believing that it is possible to assert different ways of thinking and being against the pressures of constant connection."
Well put.
December 27, 2012
If you have critically considered technology or seen its impact on a friend/work/school then this book won't tell you anything new. Chatfield however is able to summarize and bring together many of the arguments made by those who fear or criticize technology and give them a more positive and humanist twist. That is, while he acknowledges the problems associated with the almost rampant explosion of technology into our private, public and political lives, he also has a strong belief that people as a collective entity can utilize this technology to their advantage and for greater purposes. I found his chapters on the time we spend using technology and the ways in which it has changed the way we think and evaluate the most useful as he points out some obvious but not considered ways to reclaim existence back from technology.
December 17, 2012
Dit kleine boekje uit een serie is geschreven door Tom Chatfield. Het geeft een filosofische maar ook praktische kijk op de invloed van technologie op onze maatschappij. Hij beantwoordt met vele voorbeelden wat de technologie betekent voor ons dagelijkse leven.
Dit doet hij op een toegankelijke manier. De voorbeelden zijn soms Amerikaans maar verhelderend genoeg. Onderwerpen zoals democratie, privacy, versmelting tussen virtuele en 'f2f-wereld' en de rol van expertise wordt in historisch perspectief geplaatst. Een laatste hoofdstuk heet 'huiswerk' en geeft extra verdiepingsmateriaal. Van Marshall McLuhans Understanding Media tot online games als EVE Online.
Het zet je aan het denken.
Dit doet hij op een toegankelijke manier. De voorbeelden zijn soms Amerikaans maar verhelderend genoeg. Onderwerpen zoals democratie, privacy, versmelting tussen virtuele en 'f2f-wereld' en de rol van expertise wordt in historisch perspectief geplaatst. Een laatste hoofdstuk heet 'huiswerk' en geeft extra verdiepingsmateriaal. Van Marshall McLuhans Understanding Media tot online games als EVE Online.
Het zet je aan het denken.
September 1, 2014
Hmmmm. It was enjoyable enough, but felt like it touched too lightly on everything. I guess that's somewhat the point of the School Of Life series - short, and sharply directed - but here it was just too big of a subject, and the ideas too much of a random collection of ideas to be treated as such. I'd of rather the space be taken up with a deeper discussion on just one of the ideas raised. You will not learn how to thrive in the digital age.
It does present a good mixture of positive and negative issues, and overall it reads quite jovially, but the main take away is to simple - ration your time online and don't neglect the other areas of your life.
Ok, I will.
It does present a good mixture of positive and negative issues, and overall it reads quite jovially, but the main take away is to simple - ration your time online and don't neglect the other areas of your life.
Ok, I will.
February 21, 2016
"How to Thrive in the Digital Age" proposes philosophical guideposts to the changes wrought upon the world and how we can navigate those changes.
One of this book's greatest strengths, seems to me, to also be its greatest weakness. It covers topics in bite-sized, easy to digest sections. While this works, in the sense that it conveys the information in a straightforward, understandable way, it would be good to get a more in-depth perspective on these issues and ideas.
It serves as a good entry point to a discussion of digital life and does provide a guide to further reading, which is a point strongly in its favour.
One of this book's greatest strengths, seems to me, to also be its greatest weakness. It covers topics in bite-sized, easy to digest sections. While this works, in the sense that it conveys the information in a straightforward, understandable way, it would be good to get a more in-depth perspective on these issues and ideas.
It serves as a good entry point to a discussion of digital life and does provide a guide to further reading, which is a point strongly in its favour.
April 4, 2017
This is a great book that provides a range of perspectives on living in the digital age without losing it in the digital age. He performs a good balance of viewpoints about the benefits and the perils along with great additional resources to follow up with (my nerd moment of the book was listening to the different recommended reading and realizing that I read at least half of the books).
If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other reviews and writings at By Any Other Nerd /
If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other reviews and writings at By Any Other Nerd /
August 2, 2013
This wasn't as good as the other books in the school of life series, but was still well worth the read. If you are interested in the idea of thinking deeply about our digital life then this is a good book to start from. It places our digital lives into the wider context of how we want to live our lives. Like most of the school of life, the lens this is viewed through is the aristotelian notions of eudaimonia and arete - but I think that is probably the best way to think of them, so I'm not complaining.
November 18, 2013
"We must, I believe, look to the nature of our experiences rather than the tools creating them if we hope to understand the present. We must cherish the best of these experiences but also carve out a space apart from technology in our lives, and take control of our attention, apportioning our time knowingly rather than allowing always-on devices to dictate the texture of every moment. This means finding a balance within our habits both of thought and of action - and believing that it is possible to assert different ways of thinking and being against the pressures of constant connection."
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