August 17, 2012 Long time readers know I’m a huge fan of ‘digital detox’ to give writing a break, focus fully on family at the end of summer, and regroup for the back to school scene…
I’ve written about the daunting demands of an ‘always on’ culture and the need for a screen free exodus multiple times in posts like “Media Unplugged: Clamping the IV Digital Drip”…
And in this three-part series on media management involving internet ‘addiction vs agency”…
Media Management: Addiction vs. Agency Pt 1
Media Addiction vs. Agency: The Context of Control Pt2
Media, Medicos & Critical Thinking: Addiction Series Pt3
Quick reco of a compelling book that deserves its own post called “Digital Vertigo” by Andrew Keen for those who share ‘media must reads’ —It’s ripe for critical thinking in ‘point/counterpoint’ mode which will be one of our new features coming this fall when we finally overhaul this long overdue site expansion. If you’ve read it and have strong opinions in either direction, I’d love to hear your feedback.
While I agree with large chunks of Digital Vertigo in the same manner I had my head bobbing to Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together passages, and her NYT opinion piece, The Flight from Conversation there’s no doubt I find the subhead “How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us” a vast generalization, poke-worthy on a variety of levels…including the uplifting and inspiring acts of unity leveraging collective knowledge for the greater good in cases like the Colorado wildfires this summer, where our family had firsthand experience being both singed and supported.
So read up, let’s compare notes, and I’ll see you in September with more about this digital cleanse (certainly no need to wait until spring’s Screen Free Week 2013 or fall’s Information Overload Day Oct 2012 each year!)
We’ll be back with fresh looks on kids’ health, outdoor play, getting mobile (literally and electronically) and of course, screen time, apps, media management, and ways to balance out the noise so you can ‘turn down the media volume’ and hear yourself think. (some great Back to School Q&A by Common Sense Media and their new digital literacy curriculum that’s fabulous for K-5 as a “Passport” towards global digital citizenship online!)
P.S. When we finally DO expand the Shaping Youth site (at some point post-Labor Day) it will include a ‘more like this less like this’ type of feature with positive picks/damaging drek and specific solutions to raise the bar in quality media/marketing content to change the channel of influence and look at how we can better reward the ‘creme’ vs the sludge in our ‘attention culture,’ based on how we use our time. We’ll also share some youth voices, new partnerships and different media literacy/program directions along with our 2013 advisory board.
Stay tuned…(or better yet, unplug). Meanwhile, on a meta media note about critical thinking:
There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees, which are falsehoods on the other.” ~Blaise Pascal
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