Missing Out

In our highly connected world of cell phones, ever expanding inboxes and regular social media updates, it is easy to be constantly immersed in the rich and dynamic worlds created by our technologies. While the internet gives us so much, it also changes our social relationships and mental environment in many subtle ways that can be challenging for brains that aren’t too different from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Can we develop a healthy relationship with modern digital technologies by thinking about what it really means to be human?

In Extraenvironmentalist #90 we talk with Christina Crook about The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World, her book on developing intentional and deliberate relationships with today’s communication technologies. Then, we speak with Andrew Zenn about his experience at a digital detox camp, where people choose to experience a technology fast for encountering new dynamics of relating and conversing.