#digital disconnection

[emotioninfocus]

Not Just Pixels on a Screen

Beyond the Glass: A Reflection on Social Media Disconnection When I look at this datamoshed portrait, I see more than broken pixels. I see the way social media disconnection twists identity. The face is still there, but fractured, distorted, half-erased — just like the way an unfriending or digital silence can make me feel. What looks like a glitch on a screen mirrors the glitch in belonging…

Not Just Pixels on a Screen

[indizombie]

One of the hardest exercises I gave my creative writing class is to spend a complete hour to disconnect and do nothing. “This is free time given to you that isn’t free. You cannot use it to eat, drink, sleep, play, chat, talk, text, read, or write.” For the first time in a long time they said they could hear more of themselves and their surroundings. Responses ranged through amazement, fear, impatience. Several found the activity boring and fell asleep. More than the quiet, they were bothered by the stillness and the slow passage of the hour without some device to use to kill the time. While technology helps us by extending the reach of our bodies, our dependence on it removes us from these same bodies. Not being computers or machines, we suffer from hurry sickness and find ourselves exposed to more things to see and do than we can manage, and we get overwhelmed by all the tasks. But then we get impatient when nothing happens.

Paolo Manalo, 'Has this generation forgotten how to relax?!'

[hamline]

Flip phone?

Do any of you have one?

If yes, do you recommend? What's your experience with it and if you're a student, how did you manage to implement it in your life?