'What are our screens doing to us?' (The Default Life Episode #2 - 'Screens')

Click here to check out The Default Life on Amazon:

'Screens' is the second episode in the video series The Default Life, based on the book of the same name.

The music is "Do" by Son Lux, used with permission from the artist.

Thanks for watching, and if you liked it, I appreciate any comments and shares!
-Sam

[ashleyrankin]

"That the times we experience deep sadness or deep joy...don't really matter." Beautiful words! Thank you.

[barkleyenns]

Great video. It really comes back to "connection before content." Thanks for the inspiration!

[TheCrazyStats]

Thank you. This was a good wake up call. I'll try my best to not get too used to these kinds of things anymore. I am trying from before so its a good reminder!

[dntbeevil]

I can't make out the last word of this sentence: information block? information glut?
"As we spend our days starring at our screens, I think we run the risk of forgetting that we were once different, that we could once think and feel deeply, that our lives weren't always dictated by beeping iphones, cruising in a sea of information (what goes here?)..." Thanks! Brilliant stuff, guys!

[mjanec]

I've become more and more aware of how much I'm focused on technology rather than on life. This is very profound. Thank you! m.

[vanessacurtis]

Was led to this video thru Becoming Minimalist blog. Great video. My husband and I now keep screens out of the bedroom. I've always been a no TV in the bedroom - but now there's no phones (I know all the excuses, but try it for 10 days - it's freeing). Purposeful screen free time/areas is great. Connect with family & friends, not a screen.

[zcrav]

Thanks for such a thought-provoking message!

[laggeddot]

This is probably one of the best videos I have seen on You Tube, here I am a 4 am staring at my iPad in bed because I can't sleep, this video has woken me up but for the reason of the message from the video, thanks for making it.

[daviddustin]

I was discussing this exact topic today with my fiancé and an hour later someone shared this link on Facebook. Great video, I would love to read your book!

[ideaculture]

yup, you got it: information glut. it's a term I heard first used by neil postman in Technopoly. "One way of defining Technopoly, then, is to say it is what happens to society when the defenses against information glut have broken down. It is what happens when institutional life becomes inadequate to cope with too much information... when a culture, overcome by information generated by technology, tries to employ technology itself as a means of providing clear direction and humane purpose."

[italiangalsrule]

Hi, thanks for the answer, I just had missed the word ""scatterbrained".

[papermason]

I'm trying to spend no more than 2 hours/day on the screen, either TV or computer. I refuse to get a smartphone or iphone. I keep my cellphone off, I don't want to be connected all the time, only when necessary. I think the screen is useful, but I really like to decide what I'm going to accomplish before I go online. Love the video.

[ideaculture]

hey David! thanks for the comment. You can check out the book in the links above, or listen to the first 3 chapters on my channel if you want. let me know what you think or if you have any questions!

[Caseylawton]

Great video and great ideas, though Im a true believer in technology helping to connect people not disconnect. I think were at a stage in mankind where it may seem these tech screens are barriers in front of us but soon tech will live among us not between us. It will be integrated into the world in which we interact assisting us with tasks and making life easier without social disruption. Just my opinion.

[italiangalsrule]

I loved the video, I live in Brazil and here it's worst, I see groups of people together that each one is checking their screens, no one is actually there. My sister has seen this video in a site about Montessori education, my 2 sisters and I had a Montessori education and my 2 nieces are having a Montessori education and she asked me to translate this video to her. Can you tell me what's after - the world wasn't made ... til the world was made please ?! I didn't understand ! Thanks a lot !

[dntbeevil]

Thanks! Maybe our ability to process information properly is greatly stunted. We have to classify so much data, so quickly, we don't have time or space to make something rich and useful out of it. So - art, science, institutions, spirituality, work - all become shallow and formatted in terms of quantifiable productivity results, rather than existential discovery and connectivity. It's as if in order to be able to keep up, mankind's mind is morphing to be absorbed into the machine it created.

[ideaculture]

good, but i hope you finish it! its got a good ending, i promise.

[Azel]

Sorry it was so moving I stopped it at 2:22 and now I'm going to go outside.

[ideaculture]

sure! "our world wasn't made by scatterbrained people with the latest gadgets and information. it was made by scientists, philosophers, artists" etc. hope you can catch the rest.

[dntbeevil]

Thanks! Maybe our ability to process information properly is greatly stunted. We have to classify so much data, so quickly, we don't have time or space to make something rich and useful out of it. So - art, science, institutions, spirituality, work - all become shallow and formatted in terms of quantifiable productivity results, rather than existential discovery and connectivity. It's as if in order to be able to keep up, mankind's mind is morphing to be absorbed into the machine it created.