Actually Doing Something – 10/23/2023 Throughout my reading of Jenny Odell (2019) I kept thinking about David Foster Wallace (2005), his speech “This is Water”. Lo and behold it appears in chapter 5, “The Ecology of Strangers”. Doing the kind of nothing that precipitates action/change requires acute awareness of having other options from what you’re…
I’m very sensitive to the precarity of doing nothing for people who are not in a position to do nothing. Jenny O writes that the “removal of economic security for working people dissolves those boundaries” between them and their employers (15). So even in my own experience, I’ve been unfairly berated by union reps for…
Han (2022) states that “Today, there are probably very few things to which we would grant… and honorable farewell.” While reading, I have found myself morose and discouraged reading Han’s text on the non-thing, and looking for ways that I resist or fail to fit into his dismal picture of a digitized and data-fied world….
‘How to do Nothing’ promotes ‘deep listening’ as a rhetorical tool in resisting issues we are currently facing- unjust economic conditions, poor remuneration of workers, and fighting environmental problems. Stakeholders need to develop a ‘deep listening’ to the unjust systemic working conditions of employees in academic institutions. Drawing from Odell (2017), “When every moment is…
‘How to Do Nothing’ makes me reminisce on Ghana’s exploitation of natural resources by external powers. Advanced technologies used in capitalist production and refining of Ghana’s natural resources contribute to all forms of colonial systems of pollution in Ghana. For example, local industries, in partnership with foreign powers, adopt technologies that produce toxic byproducts and…
Smartphones as digital teddy bears offer incredible connectivity and access to information but introduce elements that may contribute to a derealization of corporeality by altering how individuals perceive, interact with, and present their physical selves in the digital realm. The challenge is to find a balance that acknowledges the benefits of digital connectivity while preserving…
Han (2022) describes the future digital community formation as phono sapiens. Han’s use of phono sapiens demonstrates how most individuals are constantly engrossed in the digital sphere and neglect to engage with others or pay attention to what is truly going on in the site-based community. The shift from a site-based world to a digital…
Dataism posits that the universe operates as a network of data flow, wherein humans function as organisms driven by biochemical algorithms, and machines rely on electronic algorithms. Both these systems are viewed as algorithms, highlighting their fundamental similarity. According to this perspective, intuition is subjective, and the growing influence of big data could render it…
We are the product of ancient philia, oriented to a discipline because of a certain affection, held lightly or tightly. We are brought together in communities because of habitus, destined paths we cannot circumvent. I’d argue that the draw to rhetoric, the most ancient of all habitus, is a special call indeed. So how does…
I often feel like we never had a prayer in winning the so-called battle against technology, and now we are rapidly headed towards the loss of the war: as we revel in the “confession boxes” of our smartphones and the digitization of faux lives online that are so much greener than our own in the…