The 7-Day Digital Diet

Wayne T. (2014), The 7-Day Digital Diet, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/fashion/digital-detox-email-smartphone-social-media.html?_r=0, The New York Times, Published FEB. 7 2014, accessed 15 February 2014

 

In class discussed on 11 February 2014 Kevin refereed to this article in the New York Times. it was about a journalist who restricted his use of technology, referring to the disconnection model, for a week and I thought it would be interesting.

the author details how he restricted his use of technology for emails, internet browsing, social media and video streaming, although he would not categorise himself as technology dependant. He detailed many examples of others that have had a similar experience. A stress management expert claimed stress comes from managing the future and she set up a retreat for retiring executive to help them plan for now to reduce the stress. A quote by a musician rang true with me “Our generation may be great at getting in touch with the audience, but we’re not great at creating the material for the audience” Ho Bynum (2011). To me he is saying is is easy to reach a lot of people and there are those that just put anything out there. n the training field we need to conscious we are providing the right content for the audience.

Another interesting point is he quotes Clay Shirky, a professor in journalism, as saying multitasking is cognitively damaging. We all strive to try and do multiple jobs at once usually end up failing most, in my opinion the best work is done when focus is given to one task. So I would have to agree that multitasking is counter productive most of the time but I did not realise it could be damaging, I will need to examine this further in the literature.

In the author experience he finds himself going back to read longer news articles and book when there is no, or threat of, distractions. This reminded me of Nicholas Carr’s 2008 article “Is Google making us Stupid?“. Carr argues that our reading patterns are changing and Wayne experience support this is so far as after he started the Digital Diet he went back to deeper reading.

 

New York Times (2014), The 7-Day Digital Diet, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/fashion/digital-detox-email-smartphone-social-media.html?_r=0, By Teddy Wayne FEB. 7 2014, accessed 15 February 2014

References

Carr N. (2008), Is Google Making us Stupid?, Atlantic Magazine, July-August, Vol. 302 Issue 1, p56-63

Ho Bynum (2011), Technological Austerity Manifesto, http://taylorhobynum.com/technological-austerity-manifesto/