Mindful Tech

From email to smartphones, and from social media to Google searches, digital technologies have transformed the way we learn, entertain ourselves, socialise, and work. Despite their usefulness, these technologies have often led to information overload, stress, and distraction. In recent years, many of us have begun to look at the pluses and minuses of our online lives and to ask how we might more skilfully use the tools we’ve developed.

David M. Levy, who has lived his life between the “fast world” of high tech and the “slow world” of contemplation, offers a welcome guide to being more relaxed, attentive, emotionally balanced, and more effective while online. In a series of exercises carefully designed to help readers observe and reflect on their own use, Levy has readers watch themselves closely while emailing and while multitasking, and also to experiment with unplugging for a specified period. Never prescriptive, Mindful Tech opens up new avenues for self-inquiry and will allow readers—in the workplace, in the classroom, and in the privacy of their homes—to make meaningful and powerful changes.