Fighting Fire with Fire: Reclaiming our Minds Through Design

Note: I'm also experimenting with writing on Medium, so you can find this post there as well! For years now we have been hearing about the need for people to unplug, toput down their phones, to return to a more reflective rather than reactive mode of existence. Much ink has been spilled describing the social … Continue reading Fighting Fire with Fire: Reclaiming our Minds Through Design

Phenomenology of the Virtual and the Real

A long over-due crosspost from gnovis! Way back in 2011 I embarked on a project exploring the colloquial distinction between “the Internet” and “the real” — as in, “Linda, why don’t you join us in the real world instead of texting your friends?” I interviewed friends, parents, and acquaintances hoping to identify the differences between … Continue reading Phenomenology of the Virtual and the Real

Don’t hate the dual-screen

We've all done it - the knee-jerk judgement passed on the person starting intensely at their phone at dinner, at a movie, among friends. And certainly, it is true that a substantial amount of our mobile activity is inessential at best, a waste of life's precious minutes at worst. But too often these screens are … Continue reading Don’t hate the dual-screen

Beacons: New, but Not yet Disruptive

“iBeacon” is a new technology currently in the throes of the same questionable phase of adoption and experimentation as products like Google Glass, Nest, and many other technologies in the IoT/context-aware/augmented reality department. The iBeacon is interesting because it has a relatively low barrier to entry, it is a simple enhancement on existing location services … Continue reading Beacons: New, but Not yet Disruptive