Introduction
Can our information technologies protect our attention rather than erode it? Can we use digital devices to help us focus and have more time, rather than be constantly
The Mindful iPhone Project
For the last few months I’ve been working off and on on an article about how to make your iPhone more mindful— how to change its various settings
The Even Smarter Phone
The folks at Digital Detoxing have announced their new Even Smarter Phone project. I love the appropriation of the smartphone form factor, and the space for a pencil.
“Never has our gaze been so carefully measured or so highly coveted”
Erin Anderssen shows that newspapers in Canada are still able to write about something other than Rob Ford: she has a long piece in the Toronto Globe and
Want to be more productive at work? Get off email in the evenings, new study says
The Wall Street Journal reports on a new study of productivity, accessibility, and worker effectiveness: Reading and sending work email on a smartphone late into the evening doesn’t
“The real danger of videogames isn’t violence; it’s swindling”
Ian Bogost has a terrific essay about how video games are designed to be time-consuming and addictive, and how those qualities translate into revenue and goosed stock prices
Meaning to Pause
This is an interesting concept, especially in an age when 95% of wearables assume that their job is to make you "better" (that is, more) connected, available, notified,
What do we want when we want silence? Thoughts on “Silence Is Now a Luxury Product”
"'Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption,' groused the nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. 'It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of
“For every minute you don’t touch your phone, our sponsor can provide one day of clean water to a child in need”
The UNICEF Tap Project sponsors projects to provide clean drinking water to the hundreds of millions of people who don't have it. This year, they've created an online challenge:
New article on binge-watching, and questions for those who want to share
I've got a piece on binge-watching in the latest issue of Slate. In that piece, I mention that I've been doing interviews with people about their viewing habits.