Digital reflections

I was interviewed by the site Create Hub recently, around the idea of “digital reflections” and our everyday relationships with technology. An excerpt is below; click through for the full discussion.

Q: You recently gave a talk on “Digital Reflections” at Southbank Centre. What was the talk about?

A: I was looking at some of our daily relationships with technology – and how these relationships can shape how we think and feel. Many of us have an incredibly intimate relationship with our phones, for example. They are the first objects we touch when we wake in the morning, the last objects we touch when we go to sleep at night; they are always with us, bringing with them many of the things we care about most. Much of the time, this is great. But I worry that if we have an unexamined relationship with tools like our phones, we risk developing a distorted sense of ourselves; of being excessively influenced by our onscreen reflections and projections.

I struggle with this myself. I get anxious if people don’t reply to my emails or texts fast enough; I feel like I’m missing out, or like my life is inadequate, when I scroll through other people’s timelines; I risk turning every moment of every day into the same kind of time, because I always have the same options available onscreen with me. I risk living in a kind of technological bubble – and of being seduced by how cosy and connected it feels in there. And so I try not to react by violently opposing technology, but instead to put it in perspective; to use and experience it differently; to build different kinds of time and space into my life.

Click here to read the full interview