Technology | Moore Engaging
DIGITAL DISTRACTIONS? LEARN FROM MEDIEVAL MONKS
Easily distracted; from the Sloane Manuscript 2435, f. 44v. Courtesy the British Library
This entry was posted in Learning/Education, Medieval Period, Technology on August 9, 2019 by Dave.	
Digital Minimalism is Cal Newport’s latest book. I interviewed him on his previous book, Deep Work (see link below). Both are absolutely terrific.
I am gladly not on Twitter or Facebook, though some have tried to convince me otherwise. I am on LinkedIn and obviously have some blogs. These fit what I do.
I’ve read several books and essays on the perils of social media. All have been great, but Cal’s latest book and probably Neil Postman’s, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology are now my favorites.
Newport is hardly a Luddite, but he is a wise guide in helping us to think intentionally about how we spend our time. If you look at Newport’s prodigious output of both popular and scholarly work, you know that he is practicing what he preaches.
This entry was posted in Book Review, Consumerism, Technology, Thinking on June 16, 2019 by Dave.	
LITTLE BOOK WITH BIG PUNCH!
Jaron Lanier’s book could be viewed as the eccentric musings of a technophobe, but that would be a significant misread. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now is no Luddite screed.
Lanier offers a wise and balanced book on the various dangers of social media. As Lanier makes clear, he is not advocating a total move from the Internet, but rather a temporary time out to assess what the social media side of things may be doing to us.
Throughout Ten Arguments we learn (or perhaps we already knew it) disturbing aspects that come with social media like the constant manipulation by companies for financial gain. When Facebook executives are limiting their own children’s use of the Internet, we know there is both a problem and profound hypocrisy about the problem.
One of the more disturbing things that Lanier makes clear is that all this social media makes one know themselves less as people who we will never see get to know us better!
I don’t use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I am glad I steered clear, but I will keep posting reviews and interviews about good books like this one!
This entry was posted in Book Review, Technology on December 4, 2018 by Dave.	
WHY I AM NOT ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK
Echo chambers abound. In other words, on Facebook and Twitter you “gather” with like-minded people who confirm your entrenched views.
Funny name that Facebook. There is no real face to face interaction and “gathering” or connecting is all virtual. Real person to person interaction has gone the way of the Dodo bird!
Great pooling of ignorance. Yes, there are thoughtful people on both Facebook and Twitter, but there are many more who are ignorant, and a large percentage seem not to know it!
The ancient Greeks said that to “learn is to suffer.” Real learning usually means we have to unlearn something that we believed to be true. This rarely happens, though I know of a few examples like the Westboro Baptist woman who realized via social media that her views were wrong. But these kinds of examples are rare, very rare. Probably not wise to build a case for something based on rare examples.
Let’s say you spend twenty minutes a day on Facebook and /or Twitter. That adds up to a little over 120 hours per day. Now think what you could do with 120 extra hours!
This entry was posted in Discernment/Wisdom, Learning/Education, Technology on July 30, 2018 by Dave.	
FACEBOOK AND FRANKENSTEIN
http://www.tomvmorris.com/blog/2018/4/12/zuckerberg-and-frankenstein
This entry was posted in Culture, Technology on April 13, 2018 by Dave.	
LEAVING WESTBORO BAPTIST
I’m grateful that my friend, Lyle Johnson, encouraged me to watch this. Much food for thought!
This entry was posted in Character, Christianity, Kindness, Learning/Education, Speech, Technology on January 9, 2018 by Dave.	
GOD, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING? AN HONEST CONVERSATION
Excerpt from my forthcoming book:
Pascal had much to say about diversions in his classic book, Pensées. Pascal wrote how diversions can be greatly multiplied if you are wealthy. More money equals more things to get distracted by. This is still true today, but there are plenty of things all of us Americans, irrespective of income, can get diverted by. For example, most of us have computers which can transport us to all kinds of worlds which then can keep us from thinking about the most important matters of life. We may not feel very rich, but from a global or historical vantage point we are fabulously well off. Most of us take things like air conditioning, quality water, and consistent electricity for granted. As Bill Ball told a Sunday school class I was teaching, “Kings of the past would have been thrilled by owning a used Vega car and having unlimited access to petrochemicals.”
This entry was posted in Spiritual Life, Suffering, Technology on October 20, 2017 by Dave.	