The Unplug Collection: Ideas to rethink tech use

Many of the tech wizards of the world would have us accept their creations without question, allowing them to take over our phones and screens to work their magic. And while some of it is magic, much of it is not.

My intent with these articles is to offer you different perspectives to help you rethink the role tech, devices and screens play in your life.

Read what catches your interest, in any order.

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The Unplugged Club

Are lost reading skills the canary in the digital coal mine?

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

Are lost reading skills the canary in the digital coal mine?

The idea that people don’t read books as much as they used to resonated strongly with several subscribers. Connecting our lack of book reading to too many digital distractions to read deeply, however, was a surprise. Makes sense on many levels After reading that post a neighbor called me up to say “That hit me right on the nose.”

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The Unplugged Club

What happens to your brain on digital?

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

Unfortunately, it’s worse than you think. Because it’s impacting our ability to think. A recent podcast interviewed three researchers studying the long-term effects of digital interactions in this rapidly morphing and accelerating environment of distraction and overload.

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The Unplugged Club

How to use tech with intention

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

Have you ever considered why you use a particular piece of tech – tool or platform – in your life? Maybe it’s a work requirement and you had no choice. Perhaps you saw an ad online and it looked interesting. Or maybe there was social pressure – “My friends are on __________.”

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The Unplugged Club

What if we let phones be phones?

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

Serious question. What if we returned phones to their original purpose – simple 1:1 communication? What if we Ignored the massive computing power and global reach of the device in our hand? GenZ is leading the way The teenagers in the Luddite Club in New York City actively reject modern technology – like Smartphones – fearing they are damaging to society…

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The Unplugged Club

Welcome to digital dystopia

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

Imagine a world where people rarely venture outside their homes, only to purchase goods they can’t buy online. A world where people have few face-to-face, in-the-flesh friends and relationships. Their relationships are built on pixels, chats, texts and zooms. Their vision has become so myopic they have difficulty clearly focusing on the larger-than-human…

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The Unplugged Club

Shh! We may be helping start a neo-Luddite movement

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

Shh! We may be helping start a neo-Luddite movement

Imagine my surprise to discover The Unplugged Club could be considered a neo-Luddite movement. Once you understand the historically correct meaning of Luddite, which few people do, you might even consider yourself a Neo-Luddite or at least be a bit more sympathetic.

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The Unplugged Club

Are two phones better than one?

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

What if the solution to smartphone addiction is … two phones? George Mack, who calls himself “WiFi Pirate” on Twitter with 264K followers, fixed his smartphone addiction with what he calls the Cocaine-Kale Protocol. His Kale phone provides bare-bones essentials: notes, Kindle, Uber, Maps and an emergency number for two-three people. His Cocaine phone i…

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The Unplugged Club

When FOMO controls your inbox

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

FOMO, or the “fear of missing out” is typically associated with Facebook, Twitter or other social media users who can’t stop checking and scrolling. But that definition is hardly big enough. Allow me to identify the FOMO elephant in the room: Email.

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The Unplugged Club

The real cause of our disconnection from Nature

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

The real cause of our disconnection from Nature

Today everyone blames smartphones for the exploding disconnection from Nature. Native Digitals, those 35 and younger, live reality through their screens rather than in the world. And the disconnection is getting worse: GenZ spends an average of 9 hours per day

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The Unplugged Club

What does tech overload feel like?

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

Help me understand better: What does being plugged in feel like to you? The more I talk to people the more I realize that our digital lives are scattered across a broad spectrum of supportive and addictive tech. There are some common use patterns: Text

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The Unplugged Club

Why a single man needed a digital detox

Marsha Stopa

November 27, 2023

Last week I had an opportunity to talk with a man who signed himself up for a digital detox long weekend in the nearby North Carolina mountains in 2015. We’ll call him Tom. His reason for acting on a friend’s suggestion was not what you might think when you hear the word “detox.” Tom was grieving the loss of his father, who had passed several months ear…

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The Unplugged Club

Why a single man needed a digital detox

November 27, 2023

Could this one overlooked detail about attention be causing your mental fatigue?

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

Could this one overlooked detail about attention be causing your mental fatigue?

We have two two types of attention: Directed attention – focusing on a task Effortless attention – letting our mind wander We use directed attention when we solely focus on the task at hand and ignore and suppress the mental demands and distractions that constantly tug at us. Ignoring those distractions actually takes more effort than dealing with the tas…

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The Unplugged Club

Read this newsletter and blink hard 20x

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

Downer alert: I’m doing more research on health problems associated with excessive screen time and frankly, I’m more concerned now then before I started. Let’s just talk about the vision problems. Computer vision syndrome or digital eye strain: burning, dry or watery eyes, redness, double vision, blurred vision, loss of focus, eye twitching, eye fatigue,…

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The Unplugged Club

Critical thinking is not enough to save us from the trolls

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

Critical thinking is not enough to save us from the trolls

Add this to your list of must-have skills to navigate the online world: Critical ignoring. Psychologists, scientists and educators have determined that critical thinking skills aren’t enough to save us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of garbage online. Rather than take the time to evaluate, check and verify everything we read, we need to quick…

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The Unplugged Club

How to properly slide down a digital rabbit hole (and not get lost)

Marsha Stopa

November 26, 2023

How to properly slide down a digital rabbit hole (and not get lost)

I have a love-hate relationship with digital rabbit holes. Those online forays that start with an innocent question and end up 30 minutes later with nothing to show for it except lost time. Or the sidetracks that you suddenly find yourself on while deep in topic research.

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