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> Are smartphones serving as adult pacifiers? Absolutely yes! I wrote plenty about it in Digital Vegan but there's only time and space to touch the surface of

> Are smartphones serving as adult pacifiers? Absolutely yes! I wrote plenty about it in Digital Vegan but there's only time and space to touch the surface of the psychology and research in a short accessible book. https://digitalvegan.net https://digitalvegan.net I'm working on a new study with attachment theory experts looking at the ways we form emotional bonds with digital devices and how they become transitional or proxy objects.

MandieD 5y ago
“Digital Vegan contains 50 short chapters suitable for daily reading…” Hey, just about right for this year’s Lent, in which I intend to closely examine my relationship with technology, because I can’t tell where “mommy brain” stops and where a deeper problem with attention and concentration driven by how I’m using the internet begins. I’m kicking it off with Carr’s “The Shallows,” but your book might be a good way to ensure I get through something every day.
- nonrandomstring 5y ago
  FWIW Mandie, here's my list of modern pop tech critique, all topics that DV touches at least tangentially. Far more than 40 days and nights worth of reading Shoshana Zuboff Big Other (surveillance capitalism) Virginia Eubanks Automating Inequality Sophie Brickman Baby Unplugged Cory Doctorow Radicalized Mike Monteiro Ruined by Design Nick Srnicek Platform Capitalism Paul Kingsnorth Life versus the machine Heather Burns Understanding Privacy Roger McNamee Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe Siva Vaidhyanathan Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us Catherine Price How to Break Up With Your Phone Thomas Kersting Disconnected: Protect Your Kids Against Device Dependency Nicholas Kardaras Glow Kids Zeynep Tufekci Twitter and Tear Gas Lelia Green Technoculture Douglas Rushkoff Team Human Jaron Lanier Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Carissa Véliz Privacy is Power: Why You Should Take Back Control Xiaowei Wang Blockchain Chicken Farm Jenny Oddell How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Wendy Liu Abolish SIlicon Valley Jonathan Taplin Move Fast and Break Things Andrew L. Shapiro The Control Revolution Lawrence Lessig Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace David Shenk Data Smog Douglas Rushkoff Cyberia Paulina Borsook Cyberselfish.
  - MandieD 5y ago
    Thanks - ones dealing with children and tech are especially interesting to me, as I've got a toddler who I've so far been able to (mostly) keep away from the glowing screens, but who has already started grabbing my tablet and smacking the keyboard when I'm working from home and he's not at daycare. I've seen the effects of too much device access at too young an age on younger relatives, and I really, really don't want that for my kid.
    - nonrandomstring 5y ago
      Same situation, 5 yo daughter. I'm very split on this. So, after the keyboard bashing I gave her a disused keyboard to play at while I work. Soon she wanted to join me and type so we actually turned it to a positive. She can type her name and lots of other words aged 5. Those must be good motor skills, and I am not too worried because there's' lots of bike riding, jui-jitsu and climbing in our lives too. Then I created a special "OS" (in bash/python) just for her - obviously no network but she can start her favourite music my typing "music" and stuff like that. I think it's the small screens, swiping and infantile apps that bother me. I have no smartphone or tablet, so she doesn't see behaviour to copy. Some of her friends have phones (I am furious at those parents) but we laugh at how they "get stuck on them" and that "phones are for babies". She tells her friend she's a "real hacker" - which I am sure will lead to some fun situations at school at some point. My theory is that it's about how much of an interest you take. I forgot to mention Sherry Turkle too. She has some good ideas on technology, attachment and kids.

MandieD 5y ago

“Digital Vegan contains 50 short chapters suitable for daily reading…” Hey, just about right for this year’s Lent, in which I intend to closely examine my relationship with technology, because I can’t tell where “mommy brain” stops and where a deeper problem with attention and concentration driven by how I’m using the internet begins. I’m kicking it off with Carr’s “The Shallows,” but your book might be a good way to ensure I get through something every day.

nonrandomstring 5y ago
FWIW Mandie, here's my list of modern pop tech critique, all topics that DV touches at least tangentially. Far more than 40 days and nights worth of reading Shoshana Zuboff Big Other (surveillance capitalism) Virginia Eubanks Automating Inequality Sophie Brickman Baby Unplugged Cory Doctorow Radicalized Mike Monteiro Ruined by Design Nick Srnicek Platform Capitalism Paul Kingsnorth Life versus the machine Heather Burns Understanding Privacy Roger McNamee Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe Siva Vaidhyanathan Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us Catherine Price How to Break Up With Your Phone Thomas Kersting Disconnected: Protect Your Kids Against Device Dependency Nicholas Kardaras Glow Kids Zeynep Tufekci Twitter and Tear Gas Lelia Green Technoculture Douglas Rushkoff Team Human Jaron Lanier Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Carissa Véliz Privacy is Power: Why You Should Take Back Control Xiaowei Wang Blockchain Chicken Farm Jenny Oddell How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Wendy Liu Abolish SIlicon Valley Jonathan Taplin Move Fast and Break Things Andrew L. Shapiro The Control Revolution Lawrence Lessig Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace David Shenk Data Smog Douglas Rushkoff Cyberia Paulina Borsook Cyberselfish.
- MandieD 5y ago
  Thanks - ones dealing with children and tech are especially interesting to me, as I've got a toddler who I've so far been able to (mostly) keep away from the glowing screens, but who has already started grabbing my tablet and smacking the keyboard when I'm working from home and he's not at daycare. I've seen the effects of too much device access at too young an age on younger relatives, and I really, really don't want that for my kid.
  - nonrandomstring 5y ago
    Same situation, 5 yo daughter. I'm very split on this. So, after the keyboard bashing I gave her a disused keyboard to play at while I work. Soon she wanted to join me and type so we actually turned it to a positive. She can type her name and lots of other words aged 5. Those must be good motor skills, and I am not too worried because there's' lots of bike riding, jui-jitsu and climbing in our lives too. Then I created a special "OS" (in bash/python) just for her - obviously no network but she can start her favourite music my typing "music" and stuff like that. I think it's the small screens, swiping and infantile apps that bother me. I have no smartphone or tablet, so she doesn't see behaviour to copy. Some of her friends have phones (I am furious at those parents) but we laugh at how they "get stuck on them" and that "phones are for babies". She tells her friend she's a "real hacker" - which I am sure will lead to some fun situations at school at some point. My theory is that it's about how much of an interest you take. I forgot to mention Sherry Turkle too. She has some good ideas on technology, attachment and kids.