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English 808: Technology & Literacy Unit 8—Resisting Addictive Technologies

Unit 8 Required Materials

Due Week 10 (Oct. 28): Required Reading and Activity on Resisting Addictive Technology

Optional Materials

Begin Class Part 1 @ 5:30

Unit 8 Class Activities

Part 1. Breathing (5 minutes)

  • Some of Johann Hari’s key take aways
    • Slow down, rest, do nothing, let your mind wander
  • For about 5 minutes we are just going to let you close your eyes and rest
  • Release the tension
  • Let go of your worries
  • Pause
  • Do absolutely nothing

Part 2. Reading (15 minutes): Tech Free Journal

  • Read through the journal you kept
  • Recall the state of going tech free
  • See what you though

Part 3. Freewriting (15 minutes): Tech Free Reflections

  • How successful were you at going Tech Free for a day?
  • What was the hardest thing about trying to go Tech Free?
  • How did your friends/family respond to you doing this task?
  • What was the short term impact on you of doing this task?
  • Was there any long term impact on you?
  • Did going Tech Free cause you to be more physically active or less physically active? Why?
  • How did going Tech Free impact your sleep?
  • What did you miss the most while you were going Tech Free?
  • What did you miss the least?
  • Overall, what did you think of the Tech Free experience?

Part 4. Small Group Discussion: On Going Tech Free (30 minutes)

  • Share your experiences going Tech Free
  • Observations and take aways?

Part 5. Large Group Discussion: On Going Tech Free (30 minutes)

  • Let’s talk about the Tech Free experience
  • Observations and take aways?

Part 6. Break (10 minutes)

Begin Class Part 2 @ 7:10 Tech Pedagogy

Part 7. Lecture (15 minutes): Stolen Focus

  • Johann Hari
  • Stolen Focus (2023)
    • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
    • From Chapter 2
      • Fragmentation vs. Flow
    • From Chapter 4
      • “Mind wandering is essential for making connections. Creativity is not coming up with new ideas, but finding new associations and new connections.”
    • From Chapter 6
      • Teens send a text message every six minutes they are awake
      • Checking one picture can be a 20 minute distraction
      • It’s not your fault you can’t focus: It’s by design.
    • The problem of Big Tech
      • Google causes 11 billion distractions every day
      • Google controls 50% of all the notifications on all phones in the world
      • According to Patrick De Schutter, “These conglomerates have become an integral part of our lives, whether you are a simple user or a business. By offering “free services”, they drive out and crush their competition whether they are start-ups, medium-sized businesses, or even large enterprises. However, as the saying goes, ‘If the product is free, then you are the product.’ These companies rely on your data for their business, a practice known as surveillance capitalism.”
    • From Chapter 7
      • The problem of Surveillance Capitalism
      • The business model is about showing you ads and making a better and better profile of you
      • Google already has a profile of at least 1 in every 4 people in the world (Hari calls these voodoo dolls)
      • Facebook has no “let’s meet in the real world” feature
      • The algorithms of social media drive increased screen time
        • Hate drives engagement and so we’ve learned to want to understand less and condemn more
        • The words to draw the most hits are attack, bad, and blame
        • Start looking at videos about the Holocaust
        • Within 6 videos recommended, it will be Holocaust deniers
      • We could require a different business model
    • Chapter 8
      • Can we learn to control our internal triggers?
      • Or do we need to control Big Tech?
      • You can try having self-control, but there are 1000 engineers on the other side of the screen working against you

Part 8. Small Group Discussion: Resisting Technology Addiction (20 minutes)

  • How can we address technology addiction on a personal level?
  • What can we do to help our students with the problem of technology addiction?
  • How can we address technology addiction on a larger scale?

Part 9. Large Group Discussion: Resisting Technology Addiction (20 minutes)

  • How can we address technology addiction on a personal level?
  • What can we do to help our students with the problem of technology addiction?
  • How can we address technology addiction on a larger scale?

Part 10. Breathing (5 minutes)

  • Some of Johann Hari’s key take aways
    • Slow down, rest, do nothing, let your mind wander
  • For about 5 minutes we are just going to let you close your eyes and rest
  • Release the tension
  • Let go of your worries
  • Pause
  • Do absolutely nothing

Groups Working to Resist Technology Addiction

Assignments

Due Week 11 (Nov. 4): Required Reading on Managing (and Manipulating) the Media

  • Ryan Holiday’s Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
    • Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
    • Please note: Holiday does occasionally use some swear words/adult imagery in his book but this is not the primary focus of his work