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

AUTHOR Morris, Margaret E.; Gavin, Marguerite; Turkle, Sherry et al.
PUBLISHER Tantor Audio (11/28/2018)
PRODUCT TYPE Audio (MP3 CD)

Description
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. 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; and how a trans woman celebrated her transition with selfies. 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.
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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781665218863
ISBN-10: 166521886X
Binding: CD-Audio (MP3 Format)
Content Language: English
More Product Details
Carton Quantity: 100
Feature Codes: Unabridged
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Technology & Engineering | Social Aspects
Technology & Engineering | Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Technology & Engineering | Social Aspects
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
publisher marketing
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. 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; and how a trans woman celebrated her transition with selfies. 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.
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Contribution by: Turkle, Sherry
Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauz? Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and Founder and Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. A psychoanalytically trained sociologist and psychologist, she is the author of "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" (Twentieth Anniversary Edition, MIT Press), "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, " and "Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution." She is the editor of "Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, Falling for Science: Objects in Mind, " and "The Inner History of Devices, " all three published by the MIT Press.
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Foreword by: Turkle, Sherry
Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauz? Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and Founder and Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. A psychoanalytically trained sociologist and psychologist, she is the author of "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" (Twentieth Anniversary Edition, MIT Press), "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, " and "Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution." She is the editor of "Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, Falling for Science: Objects in Mind, " and "The Inner History of Devices, " all three published by the MIT Press.
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