Ten
years ago, if someone said they had 100,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel, they
weren't looked at with envy or given praise. They were
seen as weird. "Who in their right mind would upload videos of themselves
to the internet?" Today, we have names for these kinds of people. They're
called influencers.
It has
only been recently that the masses have begun to talk at length about the true
impact of technology, specifically on our habits as human beings. Sure, the
conversation has been there all along, but we are finally getting to a point
where some of the glamour of our devices has worn off. We've become used to
them in our lives, and now we're beginning to realize that for every
improvement, there is a new distraction.
Technology,
we are beginning to learn, has its costs.
These
books are tackling the subject:
1. 'Irresistible:
The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked'
by Adam Alter
This is easily the best book I've
read so far this year — I breezed through it in a matter of days. The
introduction alone makes it impossible to put down: one of the first scenes
depicts Steve Jobs unveiling the iPad to a drooling audience, only to state in
an interview not long after that he heavily restricts his own children's use of
the device.
The author, Alter, goes on to
point out that the very people dreaming up our most used technological devices
are simultaneously aware of their impact.
The theme here is even the
greatest innovators "don't get high on their own supply." The book
picks apart our infatuation with technology—and more important, how our
relationship with our screens is deliberately crafted to keep us coming back
again and again (more than we think).
2. 'The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies
of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World' by Brad Stone
This
book is less about our (at times) unhealthy relationship with technology, and
more about the impact technology has had on our economy, our communities, and
most of all, our trust in one another.
Stone
explains that jaw-droppingly successful companies like Uber and Airbnb utilized
technology in a way that opened doors for "the sharing economy," but
really what it did was welcome everyday people to trust each other. How many
times were you told growing up not to get in a car with a stranger, or go to
someone's house you didn't know? Those two societal clichés were flipped
completely upside-down by these two startups, and they did so by building off
the levels of trust established by people on the internet.
3. 'Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your
Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind' by Jocelyn K. Glei
A
personal favorite, this book pulls from some of the world's most well-known
creative minds, all of whom seem to share the same fundamental belief: in order
to be truly creative, you need silence.
In our
busy world of dings, deeps, buzzes, emails and Slack notifications, Glei and
company point out that the greatest skill a creative person can have in today's
society is focus. The ability to remove yourself from the constant tug to
return back to your newsfeed and continue scrolling, in itself, is a
make-or-break motion that differentiates the dreamers from the doers.
If you
feel like your creativity is being squandered by hours spent refreshing your
Instagram feed, this is the book for you.
4. 'The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside
Our Heads' by Tim Wu
Not for
the faint of heart here, The Attention
Merchants points out
exactly what every big brand, major corporation, and technology manufacturer is
after: our attention.
Attention
has become the commodity of today. It's the driving force behind every single
advertising campaign and mobile device launch, app store improvement, and
operating system update. Without consumer attention, without us continuing to
refresh, check, check again, and rack up another page view or time-on-screen
data point, many of the world's largest businesses would no longer survive.
Makes
you think, doesn't it?
5. 'The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind'
by Dr. Richard Restak
With so
many new devices, there has to have been an impact on the brains of modern day
civilization, right? This is the answer Dr. Restak set out to answer. Why is it
that with the rise of technology, there has also been a rise in things like
Attention Deficit Disorder? How does our brain respond to staring at screens
for so many more hours today than in years past?
We tend
to think very little about what a bright, glowing screen can do to us:
specifically our eyes—and, of course, our brain. Other books examine this point
in regards to sleep, and the effect technology can have on getting a good
night's rest.
All in all, these books do a marvelous job of taking a fairly
objective approach to the pros and cons of technological advancement on our
society. Technology has done wonders for us in terms of communication,
productivity, and even personal expression. But it's equally important to be
aware of the costs that come with that newfound territory.
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