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GregorySuhrFirstEssay 4 - 01 Apr 2018 - Main.EbenMoglen
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Diminishing the Role of my Phone in my Life | | | The obvious response here is that I should ditch the iPhone completely, and get a phone with only the most basic features. I understand that that is the more foolproof way of solving my problem, and perhaps my current solution is only a patch-job, doomed to fail. However, at this point in time, I simply have not gone that far. | |
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Obviously a good revision of the essay, which is the least of it.
You've now realized the intellectual and emotional advantages of doing without the network environment created by the smartphone. The step of removing the smartphone rather than the applications would not yield the same benefit. Your surveillance profile would drastically decrease, which would bring you a feeling of security and satisfaction over the longer term, but it is not the same immediate, substantial reinforcement that you got from changing the mental habits that "behaviorally implanted" the smartphone in your nervous system in the first place.
The victory you have, however, is enormous. Now you are a person
changing things, instead of wishing for change you are afraid to
make. Now you see it is easier than you thought it would be. In
the near future, you want to be a person teaching those realities
to others. It only takes imagining how once again, by
willingness to experiment. The reinforcement is helping others
gain what you have now.
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GregorySuhrFirstEssay 3 - 02 Jan 2018 - Main.GregorySuhr
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<
< | Why Even Try | >
> | Diminishing the Role of my Phone in my Life | | | | |
<
< | -- By GregorySuhr - 07 Nov 2017 | >
> | -- By GregorySuhr - 02 Jan 2018 | | | | |
<
< | Should I change the way I interact with technology? | >
> | Physical Separation | | | | |
>
> | In my previous draft, I discussed how my iPhone had become a mental drain. When it is on my person, I cannot focus in any meaningful way, whether I am actively using it or expending cognitive effort to leave it in my pocket. Professor Moglen suggested that I leave it at home for several days at a time and write this draft from the perspective of someone actively trying to change. That is what I did. From December 1st through December 20th, I left my phone on my desk at home. I left home at roughly 8 AM every morning, and returned at 8 PM at night, all while being at least three blocks separated from my cell phone. Despite a few days of discomfort, it was rather easy to exist without it. | | | | |
<
< | My technology problem is two-fold. (1) I am getting dumber, and (2) the machine is getting smarter. I thwart any chance I get to digest an experience because a quick peak at the phone now occupies the moment where digestion is supposed to occur. Furthermore, as I prevent my own retention, I simultaneously leak information to an external body. | >
> | The first three or four days felt like kicking any sort of addiction. Embarrassing as it is to admit, for those first few evenings, I noticed that I walked home at a faster pace than usual; I was racing home to see what I had “missed.” During the day, I noticed that, after many years living with the thing, my brain had been trained to seek phone breaks after very short intervals of work. My mind told my hand to reach for my phone, but it was not there, and that was an uncomfortable feeling, like a pseudo-phantom pain. Friends and family were also a bit annoyed with my virtual absence, but that was a product of upset expectations: they had come to expect immediate responses, and were upset when I reappeared twelve hours later. | | | | |
>
> | Those were my only troubles: feeling like a dork as I raced home to reunite with an inanimate object, reaching (or thinking about reaching) for an object that was not there, and explaining my late replies to somewhat-inconvenienced friends and family. I am confident that those problems will go away as my own expectations and those of my friends and family change. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I was operating at a high level: my work flowed uninterrupted, I fully thought through problems, and I was better able to collaborate with those I worked with. For example, while reviewing my criminal procedure notes, if I came across a note that confused me, I would stop to read the corresponding passage from the textbook or read a relevant article online to clarify the concept. Seeking out other sources or thinking longer about a concept in order to better understand it are not novel ideas, but I would never have done that had my phone been with me. That is not because I did not think to do it, but because I did not have the time to do it. Instead, I would write off my confusion as a casualty of inevitable time constraints, replacing extra reading and thinking with phone-time. All of this additional conceptualizing snowballed, and I was in turn able to fluently converse about topics in criminal procedure with classmates when we collaborated. | | | | |
<
< | My Brain | | | | |
>
> | Dumb-phone | | | | |
<
< | I have an acute problem with engagement. Dramatic as it may sound, I can actually feel it: the constant attentional tug-of-war that leaves me frustrated and exhausted. Maybe you (classmates) do not have this problem. Perhaps you have the type of self-discipline that allows you to ignore the thing in your pocket that calls out your name, but I have seen enough classmates in enough classes surfing Amazon and texting to think the problem is close to universal. You and I might even follow the same study plan: read a couple pages, Facebook, read a couple more, incoming text, read the next two, check the email, and so on until “completion” of the task, where “completion” means not that we can converse fluently about the reading, but that we reached the assigned end-page and knew it was okay to stop and pull out our phone for a more extended surf. If my classroom observations are not enough, there are formal studies that show how a person’s iPhone (negatively) affects their brain power, even if it is just sitting there. According to those studies, even when I am reading (two pages at a time), I am not really reading, because I am expending cognitive capacity exercising the will to not check my phone. Whether in my pocket, or in my hand, my iPhone occupies space in my brain. | >
> | In the first week of winter break, I relapsed a bit. When school starts back up, or when I begin work during the summer, I am confident my phone will stay at home: the productivity difference was too stark to ignore and go back to the way things were. However, because I did not expect myself to be “productive” during the break, I allowed my iPhone to creep back into my routine. It was frustrating to find myself aimlessly surfing again. I knew I needed to take things a step further and avoid my phone not only during periods of work, but during periods of down-time. It is during periods of time off where deeper thought can take place: planning for my future, strategizing to meet those plans, and thinking of general changes and improvements for my life. During these times, it is just as important that I attain the sort of focus I now know I can achieve in the absence of my cellphone. | | | | |
<
< | This is not just a library-boredom problem. Besides not being engaged in reading on a level beyond the words that appear on the page, I am not present in a conversation at a level that would allow me to read body language, and I do not listen to directions in a way that would enable immediate action. If the bulk of my human interactions happen on the surface of a five by three screen, how should I be able to study somebody’s eye contact, whether the blood is rushing out of their face, or the nuances of their physical stance when speaking to me? And instructions are available on Google or Westlaw, so why pay attention the first time around? | >
> | Physical separation from my phone assured the success of my previous experiment. However, during winter break, unlike when I am in school, it is not every day that I have somewhere to go. Therefore, to keep my phone off of my mind while I am forced to be near it, I stripped it of all of its “smartness.” By that I mean, the only functions my iPhone now performs are text and call. Thus far, making the phone as irrelevant as possible in terms of information and entertainment has worked quite well. Through force of habit, I still reach for it, but there is simply nothing to do once I open it. I hope that through repeated “let downs,” my brain will be coached out of craving it. | | | | |
<
< | An effective attorney should be able to pick up on facial cues. He recognizes that certain situations require getting it right the first time, post-haste, and thus cannot afford to miss directions. He understands that if he is nearby an exchange of information, it is in his professional interest to be present in that moment. Above all, he realizes that this problem does not just go away the day he decides to leave his iPhone at his desk. These are not automatic abilities that turn on and off depending on the presence or absence of the iPhone. These are skills, they are developed through practice, I want them, I severely lack them, and there is still time to practice them before I am thrust into the professional world. This is one reason I should change the way I interact with technology.
Not My Brain
I am bleeding information everyday. This issue is difficult to truly feel. With my attention problem, I can hold a mirror up to my subconscious-self every time I “wake up” and find my iPhone in my hand during an important moment. The data-leaking problem (with my lack of technical know-how) has no such mirroring opportunity; I cannot see me as the machine sees me. Further hindering the ability to internalize this issue: for many of us not yet destroyed by our own digital trail, the problem is not a disaster in the flesh, just a disaster in the making. It is akin to the EIP-dilemma in Law in Contemporary Society. In that course, we tell Professor Moglen we need EIP, just like we need our smartphones, to stay relevant both socially and economically. He shows us different options (i.e. living proof that neither are necessary for relevance). We tell him that EIP will not really damage us because we are armed with an exit strategy and an iron will, just like we say unprotected data will not really damage us because nobody has any reason to watch us, viewing each piece of data we leave behind in its isolated, not aggregated, form. Then we are shown all the ways either can damage people just like us (we read up on the rates of alcoholism and depression of attorneys in Big-Law like we read up on de-anonymizing anonymous search histories that contain our searches, or data breaches over the same compromised Wi-Fi that we use, or stalking of everyday folks like us via GPS-enabled devices). But pictures of other people do no work like a mirror, and so, as sure as my iPhone is still in my pocket, a hell of a lot of Law in Contemporary Society alumni were at EIP.
While this problem may be more difficult to internalize than the one above, its implications are far heavier. My career, my safety, my very identity is on the line; the question is whether I accept the risk of ruin. Any of us who plan on dropping our name in the running for some public office, investigating individuals who have the power to investigate us right back, or handling any sort of life-or-death information on behalf of a client (like any driven attorney should plan on doing) should not wait for the potential data disaster to come to fruition. If you are like me, you are an open book for those with resources and expertise, and “open book” has likely never been a term used to describe an effective attorney.
But if the essay is the serious representation of your idea, then
the passivity with which it doesn't experiment with solving your
problems is very striking.
The method for figuring out how to change seems accessible.
You could, for example, leave the phone home for five days in a
month, keeping a list (ink on paper) of the difficulties actually
encountered during those days. With some workarounds for the
most serious likely "inconveniences" established, leave the phone
home for two solid weeks the following month. Fix the remaining
problems you encounter by not using a smartphone.
After that, stage 2.
Why not rewrite the essay after at least one of these steps?
Instead of remaining in the position of thinking about why it
would be too frightening to encounter as real problems that can
be encountered as theory, you can then think and write from the
vantage of someone changing something.
| >
> | Of course, the only barrier to my phone regaining its previous functions is my accessing the settings and entering a password to remove a restriction, then re-downloading its former features. However, I hope that this layer of conscious action will be enough to stop me. After all, the designers of the iPhone switched from a manually entered passcode, to a thumbprint, to facial recognition to access the home screen. Each of these changes removed any semblance of a conscious effort to access the phone. I seek to add such effort back. I figure that if so much of my interaction with the iPhone was unconscious, mindless, almost reflex-like thumbing, then a conscious obstacle will suffice to relegate my phone to a vastly diminished role in my daily routine. | | | | |
>
> | The obvious response here is that I should ditch the iPhone completely, and get a phone with only the most basic features. I understand that that is the more foolproof way of solving my problem, and perhaps my current solution is only a patch-job, doomed to fail. However, at this point in time, I simply have not gone that far. | | |
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. |
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GregorySuhrFirstEssay 2 - 03 Dec 2017 - Main.EbenMoglen
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<
< | | | | Why Even Try
-- By GregorySuhr - 07 Nov 2017 | | | While this problem may be more difficult to internalize than the one above, its implications are far heavier. My career, my safety, my very identity is on the line; the question is whether I accept the risk of ruin. Any of us who plan on dropping our name in the running for some public office, investigating individuals who have the power to investigate us right back, or handling any sort of life-or-death information on behalf of a client (like any driven attorney should plan on doing) should not wait for the potential data disaster to come to fruition. If you are like me, you are an open book for those with resources and expertise, and “open book” has likely never been a term used to describe an effective attorney. | |
>
> |
But if the essay is the serious representation of your idea, then
the passivity with which it doesn't experiment with solving your
problems is very striking.
The method for figuring out how to change seems accessible.
You could, for example, leave the phone home for five days in a
month, keeping a list (ink on paper) of the difficulties actually
encountered during those days. With some workarounds for the
most serious likely "inconveniences" established, leave the phone
home for two solid weeks the following month. Fix the remaining
problems you encounter by not using a smartphone.
After that, stage 2.
Why not rewrite the essay after at least one of these steps?
Instead of remaining in the position of thinking about why it
would be too frightening to encounter as real problems that can
be encountered as theory, you can then think and write from the
vantage of someone changing something.
| | |
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines: |
|
|
GregorySuhrFirstEssay 1 - 07 Nov 2017 - Main.GregorySuhr
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>
> |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstEssay" |
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Why Even Try
-- By GregorySuhr - 07 Nov 2017
Should I change the way I interact with technology?
My technology problem is two-fold. (1) I am getting dumber, and (2) the machine is getting smarter. I thwart any chance I get to digest an experience because a quick peak at the phone now occupies the moment where digestion is supposed to occur. Furthermore, as I prevent my own retention, I simultaneously leak information to an external body.
My Brain
I have an acute problem with engagement. Dramatic as it may sound, I can actually feel it: the constant attentional tug-of-war that leaves me frustrated and exhausted. Maybe you (classmates) do not have this problem. Perhaps you have the type of self-discipline that allows you to ignore the thing in your pocket that calls out your name, but I have seen enough classmates in enough classes surfing Amazon and texting to think the problem is close to universal. You and I might even follow the same study plan: read a couple pages, Facebook, read a couple more, incoming text, read the next two, check the email, and so on until “completion” of the task, where “completion” means not that we can converse fluently about the reading, but that we reached the assigned end-page and knew it was okay to stop and pull out our phone for a more extended surf. If my classroom observations are not enough, there are formal studies that show how a person’s iPhone (negatively) affects their brain power, even if it is just sitting there. According to those studies, even when I am reading (two pages at a time), I am not really reading, because I am expending cognitive capacity exercising the will to not check my phone. Whether in my pocket, or in my hand, my iPhone occupies space in my brain.
This is not just a library-boredom problem. Besides not being engaged in reading on a level beyond the words that appear on the page, I am not present in a conversation at a level that would allow me to read body language, and I do not listen to directions in a way that would enable immediate action. If the bulk of my human interactions happen on the surface of a five by three screen, how should I be able to study somebody’s eye contact, whether the blood is rushing out of their face, or the nuances of their physical stance when speaking to me? And instructions are available on Google or Westlaw, so why pay attention the first time around?
An effective attorney should be able to pick up on facial cues. He recognizes that certain situations require getting it right the first time, post-haste, and thus cannot afford to miss directions. He understands that if he is nearby an exchange of information, it is in his professional interest to be present in that moment. Above all, he realizes that this problem does not just go away the day he decides to leave his iPhone at his desk. These are not automatic abilities that turn on and off depending on the presence or absence of the iPhone. These are skills, they are developed through practice, I want them, I severely lack them, and there is still time to practice them before I am thrust into the professional world. This is one reason I should change the way I interact with technology.
Not My Brain
I am bleeding information everyday. This issue is difficult to truly feel. With my attention problem, I can hold a mirror up to my subconscious-self every time I “wake up” and find my iPhone in my hand during an important moment. The data-leaking problem (with my lack of technical know-how) has no such mirroring opportunity; I cannot see me as the machine sees me. Further hindering the ability to internalize this issue: for many of us not yet destroyed by our own digital trail, the problem is not a disaster in the flesh, just a disaster in the making. It is akin to the EIP-dilemma in Law in Contemporary Society. In that course, we tell Professor Moglen we need EIP, just like we need our smartphones, to stay relevant both socially and economically. He shows us different options (i.e. living proof that neither are necessary for relevance). We tell him that EIP will not really damage us because we are armed with an exit strategy and an iron will, just like we say unprotected data will not really damage us because nobody has any reason to watch us, viewing each piece of data we leave behind in its isolated, not aggregated, form. Then we are shown all the ways either can damage people just like us (we read up on the rates of alcoholism and depression of attorneys in Big-Law like we read up on de-anonymizing anonymous search histories that contain our searches, or data breaches over the same compromised Wi-Fi that we use, or stalking of everyday folks like us via GPS-enabled devices). But pictures of other people do no work like a mirror, and so, as sure as my iPhone is still in my pocket, a hell of a lot of Law in Contemporary Society alumni were at EIP.
While this problem may be more difficult to internalize than the one above, its implications are far heavier. My career, my safety, my very identity is on the line; the question is whether I accept the risk of ruin. Any of us who plan on dropping our name in the running for some public office, investigating individuals who have the power to investigate us right back, or handling any sort of life-or-death information on behalf of a client (like any driven attorney should plan on doing) should not wait for the potential data disaster to come to fruition. If you are like me, you are an open book for those with resources and expertise, and “open book” has likely never been a term used to describe an effective attorney.
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:
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