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Adele Guyton

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Screenfarers: Nurturing Deliberate Action in a Digital World

by Seth Bunev (Goodreads Author)

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Reading for the 2nd time

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Adele Guyton said: " Reading Screenfarers is an ongoing project for me because of its many fantastic exercises in "screenfaring" -- Seth Bunev's lovely nautical neologism for 'deliberate' and more 'addiction-proof' use of digital technology (p. 8 in my edition).

Having s Reading Screenfarers is an ongoing project for me because of its many fantastic exercises in "screenfaring" -- Seth Bunev's lovely nautical neologism for 'deliberate' and more 'addiction-proof' use of digital technology (p. 8 in my edition).

Having said this, I've read enough of the book and done enough of these exercises already to know this is an important book. It is a thoughtful, well-researched, and above all practical. Bunev aims the book mainly at parents and teachers as a gap-filler in the literature on digital technology use: there are plenty of resources out there on cyberbullying, internet privacy, and eye damage, but far fewer on tackling the use of technologies that are designed to "keep [us] on screens indefinitely" (p. 4) -- technologies that can be useful, but simultaneously try to use us.

On a side note, as a life-long pedant, I appreciate Bunev's careful distinction in the Introduction between "digital technologies" and technology in general: he says "I do not think it is a good idea to put a smartphone in the same category as cooking with fire, bridges, gunpowder, spaceships, cutlery, moveable type, MRI machines, and the steam engine -- and then ignore that any of those other things are in the category too, and say things about 'technology' that only apply to the smartphone" (p. 6). Part of the point of this distinction is to cultivate awareness about which technologies are helpful, which are predatory, and which can be reshaped to use safely; it also helps Bunev make his point that he is not "anti-technology" (indeed, the fact that he has written a book about screenfaring indicates the opposite).

Screenfarers is in three parts: 1. Habit-Forming Technologies, 2. Skill-Replacing Technologies, and 3. Teaching the Art of Screenfaring. The first part discusses interface design, the historical moves that brought about such an interface design, and the theories behind its habit-forming nature. Bunev addresses the culture of using apps that help us stop using other apps, and when this is or isn't helpful, and the section is shot through with the beginnings of alternatives to these apps as well, exercises called things like "Screenfarer's Log: Tracking Digital Habits", "Tidy Computer Use: Avoid Attention Contamination", and "How Would You Design...?".

In Part II, Bunev moves on to talk about the skills that are being lost before our eyes by the skill-replacing aspects of digital technology. Here, the exercises are in "Analog Adventures", "Observing a Place" and "Memorising the Unmemorable". I can imagine that especially the "No-Googling Challenge" will be challenging to most of us.

Part III is mainly pedagogical, focusing on ways teachers and parents might encourage students to develop screenfaring skills in a healthy manner.

Finally, while Screenfarers cannot be a complete guide to such a complex subject, I think it breaks important ground as a resource for anyone who needs to use a smartphone and laptop everyday and finds themselves going down rabbit holes too often. I also think it's important that this intervention is coming from someone from my generation, who grew up with YouTube and Facebook and understands exactly how hard these habits are to break.

Happy Screenfaring to you all. ...more "

Jun 10, 2021 01:55AM · see review