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Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

#1121 This episode is worth your time (Culture and Technology) (Encore)

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Jay Tomlinson

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.53.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2018

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Air Date: 7/21/2017

Today we look at the technology that massively influences how we spend our time and hear lots of advice on how we can begin to take back control

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Show Notes

Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill

Ch. 2: Act 1: The Panda is Dancing - @TimeWellSpentio - Air Date 11-28-16

Ch. 3: Song 1: N/A


Ch. 4: Act 2: Tim Wu on The Attention Merchants - The Zero Hour w: @RJEskow - Air Date 4-29-17

Ch. 5: Song 2: One-Armed Bandit - The Viscounts


Ch. 6: Act 3: What If Technology Were Conscious Of Your Time? - @TimeWellSpentio - Air Date 11-22-16

Ch. 7: Song 3: N/A


Ch. 8: Act 4: What If Technology Were Designed For Human Values? - @TimeWellSpentio - Air Date 11-22-16

Ch. 9: Song 4: Forever On Your Team - Frida Selander


Ch. 10: Act 5: Does Technology Actually Make Life Easier, or Just More Hectic? - @DavidPakmanShow - Air Date: 05-08-17

Ch. 11: Song 5: Spider-Man (Live) - Ramones


Ch. 12: Act 6: Tristan Harris: How better tech could protect us from distraction - @TEDTalks - Air Date 6-14-16

Ch. 13: Song 6: Time Well Spent - Tom Felton


Ch. 14: Act 7: Laura Vanderkam - How to gain control of your free time - @TEDTalks - Air Date 2-7-2017

Ch. 15: Song 7: Time In a Bottle - Jim Croce


Ch. 16: Act 8: Yuval Noah Harari - Think Again @bigthink - Air Date 2-25-17

Ch. 17: Song 8: We're Simple Minds - Club 8


Ch. 18: Act 9: Someday - The Minimalists - Air Date 3-29-17


Ch. 19: Final comments on my personal slate of apps, settings and strategies to keep my digital life under control

Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone


Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome everyone to another regularly scheduled rerun. I want to bring back an episode for you today

0:04.8

that's on a topic that I certainly care a lot about. I think about it a lot, but it's usually

0:10.2

generally on the periphery of the conversations we have about technology, but it very much cuts to

0:16.3

the core of how we interact with it. Generally, we talk about advancements in technology or new

0:22.1

features we can use with our technology, but we don't often think enough about how our technology

0:28.0

impacts us, our minds, our habits, our emotions, and so on. So today's episode is about the dark

0:34.3

side of the incentive structures at play in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs that structurally

0:39.8

disallow developers from putting the well-being of their customers first, because it's more profitable

0:46.2

to keep our attention at all costs. However, I am really excited to be able to give an update to

0:52.0

this story. Both Apple and Google have announced new features coming to their mobile operating systems,

0:57.4

specifically designed to help people take back some of the control from their devices.

1:02.8

Now to be clear, this is not a story of the tech giants coming to the rescue. This is a story

1:08.9

of ordinary people recognizing a problem and demanding that the big companies change. There's

1:14.6

an organization called Time Well Spent. It's featured heavily in today's show, but that group has

1:20.4

actually since transformed into the center for humane technology, and the work that this group has

1:26.8

been doing and the recommendations that they've been making for years can be seen directly

1:32.4

represented in the new features that Apple and Google are currently breaking about. So while these

1:37.1

updates for sure should only be seen as a small first step in the right direction, it is possible

1:45.6

that we are seeing the very beginning of a turning tide, you know, the point at which we start to

1:51.8

turn away from slot machine psychology and smartphone addiction for profit and time will tell,

1:59.6

but it's up to us to continue, first of all, making the best choices for ourselves that we can,

2:04.9

taking advantage of any changes to our devices that can help us make those better choices,

...

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