Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health, and Focus

Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health, and Focus
ISBN-10
0262039133
ISBN-13
9780262039130
Series
Left to Our Own Devices
Category
Technology & Engineering
Pages
187
Language
English
Published
2018-12-25
Publisher
MIT Press
Author
Margaret E. Morris

Description

Unexpected ways that individuals adapt technology to reclaim what matters to them, from working through conflict with smart lights to celebrating gender transition with selfies. We have been warned about the psychological perils of technology: distraction, difficulty empathizing, and loss of the ability (or desire) to carry on a conversation. But our devices and data are woven into our lives. We can't simply reject them. Instead, Margaret Morris argues, we need to adapt technology creatively to our needs and values. In Left to Our Own Devices, Morris offers examples of individuals applying technologies in unexpected ways—uses that go beyond those intended by developers and designers. Morris examines these kinds of personalized life hacks, chronicling the ways that people have adapted technology to strengthen social connection, enhance well-being, and affirm identity. Morris, a clinical psychologist and app creator, shows how people really use technology, drawing on interviews she has conducted as well as computer science and psychology research. She describes how a couple used smart lights to work through conflict; how a woman persuaded herself to eat healthier foods when her photographs of salads garnered “likes” on social media; how a trans woman celebrated her transition with selfies; and how, through augmented reality, a woman changed the way she saw her cancer and herself. These and the many other “off-label” adaptations described by Morris cast technology not just as a temptation that we struggle to resist but as a potential ally as we try to take care of ourselves and others. The stories Morris tells invite us to be more intentional and creative when left to our own devices.

Other editions

Similar books

  • Animal Sciences: The Biology, Care, and Production of Domestic Animals, Fourth Edition
    By John R. Campbell, M. Douglas Kenealy, Karen L. Campbell

    Timberlake claimed in 1980 that a fundamental problem with Singer's work is the lack of an adequate definition of suffering ...

  • Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate
    By Laura Lengnick

    3. D. Layne. 2013. Tree Fruit: Protecting Your Investment. American/Western Fruit Grower, September/October. 4. R. Snyder and J. Melu-Abreu. 2005. Frost ...

  • Biodesign: The Process of Innovating Medical Technologies
    By Stefanos Zenios, Josh Makower, Paul Yock

    At that time, these were in the low $10s of millions. ... be a good partner going forward, even though it takes longer to get the deal done," offered Chess.

  • Advanced Signal Processing: A Concise Guide
    By Amir-Homayoon Najmi, Todd Moon

    [ 59 ] S. Kotz , T. J. Kozubowski , and K. Podgorski , The Laplace ... valued signal processing : The proper way to deal with impropriety , ” IEEE Trans .

  • Resources for Technical Communication
    By Pearson Education, Pearson Education Staff, David P Pearson Education

    Some documents are annotated; some are left without annotations to provide more flexibility for instructors. This booklet can be packaged at no additional cost with any Longman title in technical communication.

  • Chemistry: An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry; Chemistry Study Pack Version 2.0 CD-ROM; The Chemistry of Life CD-ROM;...
    By Karen C. Timberlake

    Chemistry: An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry; Chemistry Study Pack Version 2.0 CD-ROM; The Chemistry of Life CD-ROM;...

  • Poultry Science: Fifth Edition
    By Colin G. Scanes, Karen D. Christensen

    The emission rates for ammonia (Casey et al., 2006): • Layers: 116 g NH3 per AU (AU or animal unit or 500 kg). • Broilers: 135 g NH3 per AU (AU or animal unit or 500 kg). Emission rates in different reports vary from less than either 10 ...

  • Solid State Materials Chemistry
    By Patrick M. Woodward, Pavel Karen, John S. O. Evans

    [45] B.F. Hoskins, R. Robson, “Design and construction of a new class of scaffolding-like materials comprising infinite polymeric frameworks of 3D-linked molecular rods. A reappraisal of the zinc cyanide and cadmium cyanide structures ...

  • Abbreviations Dictionary
    By Dean A. Stahl, Karen Landen

    ... Tallest Mountain Mount Robson—12,972 feet or 3,954 meters—in the Canadian Rockies Canada's Westernmost City Dawson, Yukon Canada's Westernmost Point in Yukon Territory just east of Alaska's Demarcation Point Canary Islands' Largest ...

  • Agriculture: A Very Short Introduction
    By Paul Brassley, Richard Soffe

    ACCOUNTING Christopher Nobes ADVERTISING Winston Fletcher AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION Eddie S. Glaude Jr AFRICAN HISTORY ... Hugh Bowden ALGEBRA Peter M. Higgins AMERICAN HISTORY Paul S. Boyer AMERICAN IMMIGRATION David A. Gerber AMERICAN ...