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Slow Design Reader
SlowLab - A Slow Design Network
What do social networks like this one have to do with SLOW AGENCY?
When slowLab joined Facebook just six months ago, we did so, in part, to share our thoughts on that with others. We hope you’ll join the discussion here, or write on your own site/blog/feed using the hashtags #slowagency and #slowknowledge
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Clearly, the ubiquity of today’s digital tools and networks has changed the way we live. They give us instant access to information, allow us to dynamically share our ideas, and connect us to friends old and new based on our personal histories, interests and desires. They are proven enablers of democratization, environmental monitoring, political whistleblowing, and social justice, and we applaud their use in these ways.
At the same time, as the adoption of these new media continues to grow, its important to be aware of how they might be displacing (or, at best, distracting from) other, valuable territories of life experience. At slowLab we feel it’s essential to reflect on this, rather than just accepting it as the natural course of human events. Taking a ‘Slower’ view can bring these issues into focus, into balance, and help foster alternatives.
It’s important to question the fact that people have come to feel 'incomplete' without their mobile phones, let alone without the Internet at their fingertips. That the power of networks transports the individual out of the very coffee house where s/he’s physically sitting, surrounded by others lightly tapping on their own personal devices. That electronic communication platforms like text messaging, chat and Twitter give people the feeling of being connected, but also force them into a constant state of reacting, with little or no time for reflecting.
On social media platforms like Facebook, it’s fun to boast several hundred ‘friends,’ but is it at the expense of true confidence and intimate familiarity? When it’s so easy to ‘like’ several dozen things a day, how and when do we assess what’s deeply valuable to us, what we truly desire?
And all the while, every Facebook page, Flickr or Twitter account (not to mention the devices we use to access them) is powered by real, mostly non-renewable energy, not by the magical ether that some may imagine.
--
This isn’t a rant against technology, but more of a cautionary tale.
slowLab is here and elsewhere on the web, because we feel strongly that the world is a better place with Slow design in it, and that the more people who know about it and exercise Slow design agency in their own lives, the better still our world can be.
We want to make sure that people continue to have intimate spatial and sensory experiences of the world, that they enjoy the pleasures of public space and celebrate the synchronicity of chance encounters. We need to remember the power of intuition and the value of the inner voice, and we need to make sure there's time in our busy lives to listen, reflect and dream…
That doesn’t mean taking all our lives ‘offline,’ but rather being mindful and critical about our use of all these media and their growing prominence in our world.
SLOW AGENCY highlights every individual's potential to examine (and exercise) her/his beliefs, rights and responsibilities in relation to such dominant systems as the social media, and well beyond.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this! Again, feel free to comment here, or write on your own site/blog/feed using the hashtags #slowagency and #slowknowledge
--
SLOW AGENCY is one of the topics of our emerging Slow Design Knowledge Platform http://igg.me/at/slowdesign
--
The image here shows employees of the Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy setting of an 'art bomb' to protest government cuts to cultural funding in the Netherlands
What do social networks like this one have to do with SLOW AGENCY?
When slowLab joined Facebook just six months ago, we did so, in part, to share our thoughts on that with others. We hope you’ll join the discussion here, or write on your own site/blog/feed using the hashtags #slowagency and #slowknowledge
-
Clearly, the ubiquity of today’s digital tools and networks has changed the way we live. They give us instant access to information, allow us to dynamically share our ideas, and connect us to friends old and new based on our personal histories, interests and desires. They are proven enablers of democratization, environmental monitoring, political whistleblowing, and social justice, and we applaud their use in these ways.
At the same time, as the adoption of these new media continues to grow, its important to be aware of how they might be displacing (or, at best, distracting from) other, valuable territories of life experience. At slowLab we feel it’s essential to reflect on this, rather than just accepting it as the natural course of human events. Taking a ‘Slower’ view can bring these issues into focus, into balance, and help foster alternatives.
It’s important to question the fact that people have come to feel 'incomplete' without their mobile phones, let alone without the Internet at their fingertips. That the power of networks transports the individual out of the very coffee house where s/he’s physically sitting, surrounded by others lightly tapping on their own personal devices. That electronic communication platforms like text messaging, chat and Twitter give people the feeling of being connected, but also force them into a constant state of reacting, with little or no time for reflecting.
On social media platforms like Facebook, it’s fun to boast several hundred ‘friends,’ but is it at the expense of true confidence and intimate familiarity? When it’s so easy to ‘like’ several dozen things a day, how and when do we assess what’s deeply valuable to us, what we truly desire?
And all the while, every Facebook page, Flickr or Twitter account (not to mention the devices we use to access them) is powered by real, mostly non-renewable energy, not by the magical ether that some may imagine.
--
This isn’t a rant against technology, but more of a cautionary tale.
slowLab is here and elsewhere on the web, because we feel strongly that the world is a better place with Slow design in it, and that the more people who know about it and exercise Slow design agency in their own lives, the better still our world can be.
We want to make sure that people continue to have intimate spatial and sensory experiences of the world, that they enjoy the pleasures of public space and celebrate the synchronicity of chance encounters. We need to remember the power of intuition and the value of the inner voice, and we need to make sure there's time in our busy lives to listen, reflect and dream…
That doesn’t mean taking all our lives ‘offline,’ but rather being mindful and critical about our use of all these media and their growing prominence in our world.
SLOW AGENCY highlights every individual's potential to examine (and exercise) her/his beliefs, rights and responsibilities in relation to such dominant systems as the social media, and well beyond.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this! Again, feel free to comment here, or write on your own site/blog/feed using the hashtags #slowagency and #slowknowledge
--
SLOW AGENCY is one of the topics of our emerging Slow Design Knowledge Platform http://igg.me/at/slowdesign
--
The image here shows employees of the Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy setting of an 'art bomb' to protest government cuts to cultural funding in the Netherlands
Unknown Binding
First published September 1, 2013
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