Stop sit look listen relax engage interact

Abstract

Faster phones, expanded use of personal computers, widespread access to digital bandwidth, and applications for the internet across multiple devices allows nearly instantaneous access to information and provides a means to stay in constant touch with remote friends and family. On the one hand, technology appears to benefit us socially and culturally by reducing perceived distances between individuals and groups – even between continents. On the other hand, such emersion in technology serves to isolate us from our immediate context by focusing our attention inward, toward ourselves and our devices, distracting us from being truly aware of our surroundings. It is what German philosopher Martin Heidegger would call living an “inauthentic existence.