celebrated author of books such as Inviting a Monkey to Tea: Befriending Your Mind. With Sounds True, Nancy has written a new book called The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Nancy have a frank discussion of the large-scale modern addiction to cell phones, email, and social media. Nancy offers ways one can recognize addictive behavior and how we can break out of compulsive cycles around technology. They also talk about parenting in the digital age and the importance setting appropriate boundaries when it comes to electronic media. Finally, Nancy considers the need for a "digital... posted on Feb 8 2018 (17,958 reads)

follows is the audio and transcript of an interview between Krista Tippett and Tiffany Shlain, syndicated from www.onbeing.org MS. KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: Tiffany Shlain thinks of the internet when she thinks of her favorite quote of the naturalist John Muir, that “when you tug at a single thing in the universe, you find it’s attached to everything else.” She is an internet pioneer and a filmmaker committed to reframing technology as an expression of the best of what humanity is capable, with all the complexity that entails. She founded the Webby Awards — the “Oscars of the Internet” — which is celebrating its 20th anniversary thi... posted on Apr 11 2016 (10,107 reads)

Tippett, host: Sherry Turkle founded and directs the intriguingly titled MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She made waves with her book Alone Together; it was widely reviewed as a call to "unplug" our digital gadgets. But as I've read her and listened to her speak, I hear Sherry Turkle saying something more thought-provoking: that we can lead examined lives with our technology. That each of us, in our everyday interactions, can choose between letting technology shape us and shaping it towards human purposes, even towards honoring what we hold dear. Engaging Sherry Turkle on this is full of usable ideas — from how to declare email bankruptcy to teachi... posted on Jul 1 2013 (28,477 reads)

12 years at Microsoft, 5 of which were spent in India, applying electronic technologies for international development, Kentaro Toyama came to one conclusion: technology is not the answer. In our digital age of exponential tech innovation—where the average American adult spends 11 hours a day on electronic media, the majority of the nation’s cell phone owners sleep with it by their side, and companies like Google and Levis are coming up with ‘smart jeans’— the undercurrents of mainstream culture seem to be marching to the beat of a drum far different from Kentaro’s—one that toots technology as an indefatigable sign of progress.  ... posted on Aug 12 2015 (14,035 reads)

to move to a more gender-balanced world. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tiffany and I spoke about her unusual approach of using short films as a centerpiece to a social change strategy and movement. We talked about her short film, The Science of Character, and also the social science and neuroscience behind character, how you can embody different virtues by working on developing specific character strengths. We also talked about her discovery of the importance of a technology Shabbat, a 24-hour period that she takes once a week free from any screen time, and how this has been actually life-changing for her, and her view that we need to take an empowered view tow... posted on Aug 11 2018 (5,898 reads)

with a rural sugarcane cooperative a few hours outside of Mumbai. They had a network of village personal computers that allowed the cooperative to report sales results to farmers. To reduce costs, we experimented with a mobile-phone-based system that replaced some of the PCs. Our system was faster, cheaper and better liked by farmers, but when it came time to expand the pilot, we were stymied by internal political dysfunction at the cooperative. In several projects to design educational technology for schools, we found that teacher and administrator attitudes were the real keys to success. Then, when we connected low-income slum residents with potential employers, limited education a... posted on Oct 15 2011 (16,429 reads)

6 percent of U.S. workers checked their work email when they or their spouse were in labor.   Technology can bring happiness. Anyone who’s found the perfect meditation app or downloaded a grandchild’s photo won’t doubt that. But technology can also bring anxiety, stress, and frustration. And that seems to be a given, too, making us throw our hands in the air. We accept that technology will always be a mixed bag and we have to take the bad with the good. "I worry that maybe our happiness is getting left behind." According to Amy Blankson, author of the new book The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies for Balancing Productivity a... posted on Jun 25 2017 (12,125 reads)

Revisited: There was a time when buildings were scaled to the human figure, democracies were scaled to the societies they served, and enterprises were scaled to communities. Against that backdrop, author Kirkpatrick Sale revisits his classic book Human Scale against recent global developments and offers compelling new insights on how to turn toward a scale that allows humanity to not only survive, but thrive. In this excerpt from Human Scale Revisited, Sale tackles the notion of human-scale technology. There is no such thing as a society without technology. Homo erectus and Homo sapiens for nearly two million years had the hand-axe, a small, simple, beautiful, and extremely useful... posted on May 4 2018 (7,758 reads)

subsided for now, replaced only by the occasional medley of bird calls. The hum of my computer, a familiar sound, seamlessly blends into the background. My phone sits in the other room, unattended, until it pings for my attention. My tablet rests in the closet for now, idling before I dive back into one of the three books it currently stores. Look around you. How many devices are bidding for your attention? If someone came into your dwelling space, could they tell what year it was by the technology that immediately surrounded you, or would they have to dig a little deeper? When was the last time you checked your phone, your email, took a walk outside untethered? While your answers ... posted on Oct 11 2017 (13,220 reads)

and soul-deadening? Why is it that as capitalism developed, it created a mode of production, of goods and services, in which all the nonmaterial satisfactions that might come from work were eliminated? Workers who do this kind of work, whether they do it in factories, in call centers,or in fulfillment warehouses, do it for pay. There is certainly no other earthly reason to do what they do except for pay. So the question is, "Why?" And here's the answer: the answer is technology. Now, I know, I know --yeah, yeah, yeah, technology, automation screws people, blah blah -- that's not what I mean. I'm not talking about the kind of technology that has enveloped o... posted on Nov 26 2015 (18,884 reads)

am no technophobe, but I do believe in living consciously … and technology has a tendency to overrun our attention and our lives. It’s designed to do that: tech companies are motivated to keep our attention in their apps, their websites, their devices. They’ve found incentives for us to keep using the technology, shiny new things every second, powerful recommendation engines, tapping into our desire not to miss out, to be entertained, to run to comfort. But you know all that. The problem comes when we try to figure out how to get a grip on it all, to tame technology to do what we need and then let it go so we can be more present, go outside more, move more, be conn... posted on Jan 12 2019 (7,211 reads)

that, despite the festival’s cancellation, “Echoes of the Invisible” was awarded the ZEISS Cinematography Award for “the very best imagery in storytelling. I’ve seen a rough edit of the film, and it’s a masterpiece. Here’s a lightly edited version of our conversation: Can You briefly explain the concept of the film? The film became a reflection on the importance of silence and stillness in the digital age. Thinking about our relationship to technology at this point in human history, it’s a really critical moment. Technology is becoming increasingly, intimately integrated into our lives. We’re becoming dependent on it for so m... posted on Jun 27 2021 (6,777 reads)

spiritual needs so that you can stay grounded yet integrated and authentic in both pursuits? We are hoping to explore some of these questions not only with Jacob but also with all of you. We have a remarkable moderator today, Preeta Bansal. She is a lawyer by trade who spent some time in the private sector and in the public sector by serving under both the Clinton and the Obama administrations. She is currently a lecturer at MIT and working with their lab for social machines, determining how technology can be used for social emergence. So Preeta, thank you as well, for joining us today and for being our guide. We love to hear your thoughts as well on today's theme and have a wonderful... posted on Jul 4 2015 (8,479 reads)

happens when we become too dependent on our mobile phones? According to MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, author of the new book Reclaiming Conversation, we lose our ability to have deeper, more spontaneous conversations with others, changing the nature of our social interactions in alarming ways. Turkle has spent the last 20 years studying the impacts of technology on how we behave alone and in groups. Though initially excited by technology’s potential to transform society for the better, she has become increasingly worried about how new technologies, cell phones in particular, are eroding the social fabric of our communities. In her previous book, the bestselling Al... posted on Jul 31 2016 (30,332 reads)

has long been a tenet of Eastern philosophy and indigenous cosmologies. But the recent addition of the Internet has added a new layer, which connects us in a fresh way, giving the world a new type of central nervous system. Something happens in one place, and we can see it, feel it, and do something about it almost instantaneously. Technology is clearly changing us, especially the way we connect with our friends, families, and the world around us. It has this huge potential. But technology has also led to some of the biggest problems of our day. It’s accelerating our connectedness in ways we can’t even predict or be completely aware of. Take the honeybees and thei... posted on Oct 3 2011 (21,138 reads)

putatively in charge. Ms. Tippett: Right. Mr. Godin: And yet we ignore this bottom-up thing when in fact it's the thing we are most likely to be able to touch and change. (Sound bite of music) Ms. Tippett: Also I think what you're pointing at in a lot of your work is that because of the way the world has changed subjectively, because we're living in a post-geography world. That's a phrase you use. Because we have what you call a connection economy, we — technology is actually empowering that bottom-up change, right, and kind of dismantling the hierarchical overbearing leader model that a lot of us actually still grew up with. Mr. Godin: And at the... posted on Sep 27 2013 (28,894 reads)

networking via the Internet 21. Graphic user interface (GUI) 22. Digital photography/videography 23. RFID and applications (e.g., EZ Pass) 24. Genetically modified plants 25. Bio fuels 26. Bar codes and scanners 27. ATMs 28. Stents 29. SRAM flash memory 30. Anti retroviral treatment for AIDS Before the winners could be selected from the vast number of entries, the Wharton judges first had to define what innovation means in an age dominated by digital technology, medical advancements and mobile communications. The judges included Ian MacMillan, director of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center; Thomas Colligan, vice dean, Wharton Execut... posted on Nov 17 2013 (35,662 reads)

studies, deliberately selecting activities that matter. In our world, food, family even and free play have a firm place, often touted as sacred and protected ground. And since our life is designed to fully embrace living it, we have to be mindful of all the pieces that might creep in and occupy more than their fair share. Technology is one of those pieces. All at once, it seems, our children began leaving diapers, cribs and strollers for backpacks, playdates and sports. Seemingly, the technology infiltrated just as suddenly. One day I was managing public preschool television programming and a small selection of desktop computer games, the next, portable devices, social networks, e-... posted on Apr 17 2015 (17,562 reads)

and Marino have used tremendous creativity to infuse the environment with a sense of informality, personality, even frivolity.That’s a refreshing dose of humility from a 60-something leader with an enviable track record of business success. Rite-Solutions president Joe Marino, also a 60-something technologist, echoes this outlook on leadership. “There’s nothing wrong with experience,” he says. “The problem is when experience gets in the way of innovation. In technology-driven industries, maybe in most industries, the higher you rise, the more removed you get from what’s actually going on. As founders, the one thing we know is that we don’t kno... posted on Jun 17 2013 (26,062 reads)

Steps to A Healthier Relationship with Technology I’ve written about digital technology for 35+ years, most of the time in Silicon Valley. Over the decades our evolving devices, and what we can do with them, have dramatically transformed almost every facet of our lives -- from how we bank, travel, and shop, to more abstract realms like how we derive a sense of self-worth, how we forge and sustain relationships, and how we choose to spend our attention. I think the first step to getting a human and humane handle on this rapid transition from a nature-based to a digital-based society is for us all – individually and collectively; technologists and the public - to... posted on Apr 8 2015 (21,395 reads)