Tag: Digital Mindfulness

Bookmarked Against Waldenponding (eepurl.com)

How to manage your attention without smashing your smartphone or retreating to a log cabin

Venkatesh Rao provides a counter-narrative to the argument that we need to abandon social platforms perpetuated by Cal Newport. I think that the challenge is in finding some sort of balance. This is what I tried to capture in my post and I think is touched on in the #ProSocialWeb movement.

Marginalia

Whether you choose a Soft or Hard Waldenponding, and whether you choose it as an occasional break or a regularly scheduled retreat, just recognize that it is not a self-evidently more “moral” attitude then getting your mind all dirty and entangled in the “toxic” information streams.

We are all now part of a powerful global social computer in the cloud that is possibly the only mechanism we have available to tackle the big problems of the world that industrial age mechanisms are failing to cope with. We might as well get good at it. Do your part. Stay as plugged in as you can.

Listened 2toPonder Episode 20: Digital Mindfulness Redux by Greg McVerryGreg McVerry from quickthoughts.jgregorymcverry.com

In this episode I continie @mrkndvs disucssion of what does digital mindullness mean. In the last step I foucsed too much on unplugging and Aaron cam back and asked what does it mean to be mindful when you stay online. 

Some great points here Greg. I particularly liked your rephrasing of digital mindfulness as ‘being mindful of the digital’. This was epitomised to me on the weekend in a post on mindfulness that seemed to lack any awareness of the underlying data inherent within platform capitalism.

I also agree about the finding the balance between the technology and the human. I have really enjoyed Douglas Rushkoff’s exploration of this area with the Team Human podcast. I look forward to reading the book too when it comes out.