Unplugging Is Not the Solution You Want

In his latest work, Program or Be Programmed , the 15th anniversary edition, Rushkoff proposes four methods to avoid being programmed by digital technology, and to instead become the programmers of our world.

What we require is to:

1. Denaturalize power by revealing social constructions which are ideas we merely invented, and are not pre-existing laws w

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Instead of falling into endless content holes, how can we congregate and self-teach ourselves material which was once worth tens of thousands of dollars behind an ivy academic wall, and is now free on YouTube this very second?

Trigger agency by reminding ourselves how digital environments offer us endless possibilities of access, authorship and agency, not constraint

“The way to manage your attention is not to ‘unplug’ or do some sort of bullshit Classical Liberal virtue signaling crap of ‘I only read Ancient Greek authors’ but to be sensitive to your current mind size and consciously target the zone you want to be in...

Most dramatic yet least questioned, AirPods and wearables continue to break sales records... Our tech is increasingly on and inside of our bodies. So much for “getting away.”

Instead of pointing out, “What tech is doing to us...” what if we asked, “What are we doing to

ourselves

?”

This past year I ate at a restaurant which placed cute, chest-like boxes on each table. It was a gentle, decorative nudge to place your phones in there while dining. I loved it . Past tense. After the third time eating there, I thought: “ How... See more

It takes a certain privilege to opt out.

Instead of unplugging, how may we become more mindful in embracing and strengthening our ability to

live with

these consequences?