Keynote: Manoush Zomorodi
General Session 1 - Bored and Brilliant: Finding Balance in the Digital Age
When was the last time you were bored? Manoush Zomorodi, host of WNYC's Note to Self, has been exploring the idea that a lack of boredom suppresses our creativity and asks whether our devices are to blame. In this talk, Manoush will share insights from the "Bored and Brilliant" project, an experiment she ran with 20,000 participants to find out if we can rethink our relationship with technology. It's not about banning our devices - just using them more thoughtfully, so we can get the best out of ourselves and our lives.
When was the last time you were bored? Manoush Zomorodi, host of WNYC's Note to Self, has been exploring the idea that a lack of boredom suppresses our creativity and asks whether our devices are to blame. In this talk, Manoush will share insights from the "Bored and Brilliant" project, an experiment she ran with 20,000 participants to find out if we can rethink our relationship with technology. It's not about banning our devices - just using them more thoughtfully, so we can get the best out of ourselves and our lives.
Show was known as New Tech City. Audience responded to personal stories into how tech is changing our lives.
Note to Self: the tech show about being human.
Down day, blank screen, can't come up with anything creative to do on show. Looked down at phone. Best ideas come when bored. Now standing in line, waiting..., look at phone.
Maybe you can relate?
Are there consequences to never letting yourself space out?
Pic boy on boat, on phone, missing whale.
Default mode when bored. Do problem solving, autobiographical planning. How we got to where we are, how we get to where we want to go.
If we use phone differently, can we jump start this network for original thinking or creativity? What if we embraced being bored?!
Could this make us brilliant?
How much time are we spending on our phone?
Let's change our behavior to see if it helps us.
Bored & brilliant: the lost art of being bored
20,000 participated in study.
Wanted to be productive. Felt addicted to tech. Worried about helalth. Wanted data to understant selves better.
Apps: Moment ioS, BreakFree for Android.
Measured minutes, how many times picked up.
She picked it up 90 times per day. Becomes reflex. Real wake up call.
Participants before: avg. 2 hrs. day, checking phone 60 times. (baseline)
Every day behavior modification.
1. put it in your pocket day. InOut of sight No walking & texting.
Day 3: Delete that app day. The one that is driving them craziest.
Watch a pot of water come to boil.
Build something with contents of wallet.
Check out photogallery.
Stories that started about what it felt like, relationship changed with tech.
Babysteps.
After challenge week: avg. decrease 6 fewer minutes of phone use each day. Parents 16 minutes. Gamers 20 fewer minutes.
So difficult to change habits that quickly!
More important than data was that project gave tools & info to feel empowered. Understood selves & gadgets better.
70% felt like had time to think.
Becoming self again.
Happier.
Schools asked for curriculum.
Freshman U of New Orleans asked every semester kick off with bored & brilliant.
Studying easier! Kids who thought were struggling in school, understood material once turned FB off.
Authors finished book.
Entrepreneurs finished projects at work.
"More eye contact!"-Joel Adams/ Stanton College Prep/Jacksonville, FL
Sherry Turkel (MIT) fear mongering around tech. Let me be clear, I love this stuff. Don't ban it, just use it more thoughtfully. Meet people where they are--telling them to put it away is not realistic. Maybe tech isn't as different as eating well, exercising. Most of us will spend 2 years of our life on FB. Most people would prefer to be present rather than reading/posting about others adventures.
Creativity #1 leadership competency. How can we enable future leaders without giving them the time to solve problems, think creatively.
Infomagical this year's project.
Digital literacy campaign.
Launched Monday.
Finding focus, coping with all the info they consume every day. Endless loop emails, texts, work emails, twitter, FB, IG, stuck in loop...so overwhelmed with loop, just don't do anything.
Surveyed: what does info-overload mean to you? Good & bad.
"I don't want to miss something that will inspire me.
"I'm somehow deeply convinced that I should be able to accomplish more in a day than I would ever expect of any other person."
"You're simply a contemporary, modern digital junkie."
Dr. Dimitrios Tsivrikos, Consumer Psych U of London
Overindulging. Can't even use it in a constructive way. .
Only use 40-50% of info. we take in per day.
Why we feel disconnect between what we
There's a certain number of decisions you can make before you deplete the brain's capactiy for making good decisions." Daniel Levitin
Brains feel maxed out. Society says "keep going! Don't miss out!"
Families, communities, countries are in the midst of working out cultural norms & relationships with tech.
"When first fall in love and can think of nothing else." Genevieve Bell, Anthropologist, Intel
How do you decide what most useful thing that this tech does?
What are we waiting for?
Infomagical program: Can we turn overload into something less draining, more magical?
I want all of the information I consume next week to help me be_________________.
New challenge each week. Behavior modification to see if it helps you focus, get magical.
Marie Condo
16,000 ppl signed up in 36 hours.
Data via text. Measuring what sticking to an information goal has on feeling of info overload.
Hypothesis: when we purposefully choose, when personal magic can happen.
Flickr founder Caterina Fake says you'll know you've succeeded "When none of those distractions are impeding a sense of yourself."
Invented FOMO fear of missing out. JOMO joy of missing out.
wnyc.org/infomagical
JOIN!!!!!
New digital literacy. Not reputable or worthwhile, we're past that. Now, it's about when and how you want to use it.
Note to Self: the tech show about being human.
Down day, blank screen, can't come up with anything creative to do on show. Looked down at phone. Best ideas come when bored. Now standing in line, waiting..., look at phone.
Maybe you can relate?
Are there consequences to never letting yourself space out?
Pic boy on boat, on phone, missing whale.
Default mode when bored. Do problem solving, autobiographical planning. How we got to where we are, how we get to where we want to go.
If we use phone differently, can we jump start this network for original thinking or creativity? What if we embraced being bored?!
Could this make us brilliant?
How much time are we spending on our phone?
Let's change our behavior to see if it helps us.
Bored & brilliant: the lost art of being bored
20,000 participated in study.
Wanted to be productive. Felt addicted to tech. Worried about helalth. Wanted data to understant selves better.
Apps: Moment ioS, BreakFree for Android.
Measured minutes, how many times picked up.
She picked it up 90 times per day. Becomes reflex. Real wake up call.
Participants before: avg. 2 hrs. day, checking phone 60 times. (baseline)
Every day behavior modification.
1. put it in your pocket day. InOut of sight No walking & texting.
Day 3: Delete that app day. The one that is driving them craziest.
Watch a pot of water come to boil.
Build something with contents of wallet.
Check out photogallery.
Stories that started about what it felt like, relationship changed with tech.
Babysteps.
After challenge week: avg. decrease 6 fewer minutes of phone use each day. Parents 16 minutes. Gamers 20 fewer minutes.
So difficult to change habits that quickly!
More important than data was that project gave tools & info to feel empowered. Understood selves & gadgets better.
70% felt like had time to think.
Becoming self again.
Happier.
Schools asked for curriculum.
Freshman U of New Orleans asked every semester kick off with bored & brilliant.
Studying easier! Kids who thought were struggling in school, understood material once turned FB off.
Authors finished book.
Entrepreneurs finished projects at work.
"More eye contact!"-Joel Adams/ Stanton College Prep/Jacksonville, FL
Sherry Turkel (MIT) fear mongering around tech. Let me be clear, I love this stuff. Don't ban it, just use it more thoughtfully. Meet people where they are--telling them to put it away is not realistic. Maybe tech isn't as different as eating well, exercising. Most of us will spend 2 years of our life on FB. Most people would prefer to be present rather than reading/posting about others adventures.
Creativity #1 leadership competency. How can we enable future leaders without giving them the time to solve problems, think creatively.
Infomagical this year's project.
Digital literacy campaign.
Launched Monday.
Finding focus, coping with all the info they consume every day. Endless loop emails, texts, work emails, twitter, FB, IG, stuck in loop...so overwhelmed with loop, just don't do anything.
Surveyed: what does info-overload mean to you? Good & bad.
"I don't want to miss something that will inspire me.
"I'm somehow deeply convinced that I should be able to accomplish more in a day than I would ever expect of any other person."
"You're simply a contemporary, modern digital junkie."
Dr. Dimitrios Tsivrikos, Consumer Psych U of London
Overindulging. Can't even use it in a constructive way. .
Only use 40-50% of info. we take in per day.
Why we feel disconnect between what we
There's a certain number of decisions you can make before you deplete the brain's capactiy for making good decisions." Daniel Levitin
Brains feel maxed out. Society says "keep going! Don't miss out!"
Families, communities, countries are in the midst of working out cultural norms & relationships with tech.
"When first fall in love and can think of nothing else." Genevieve Bell, Anthropologist, Intel
How do you decide what most useful thing that this tech does?
What are we waiting for?
Infomagical program: Can we turn overload into something less draining, more magical?
I want all of the information I consume next week to help me be_________________.
New challenge each week. Behavior modification to see if it helps you focus, get magical.
Marie Condo
16,000 ppl signed up in 36 hours.
Data via text. Measuring what sticking to an information goal has on feeling of info overload.
Hypothesis: when we purposefully choose, when personal magic can happen.
Flickr founder Caterina Fake says you'll know you've succeeded "When none of those distractions are impeding a sense of yourself."
Invented FOMO fear of missing out. JOMO joy of missing out.
wnyc.org/infomagical
JOIN!!!!!
New digital literacy. Not reputable or worthwhile, we're past that. Now, it's about when and how you want to use it.
Q & A session
How to find quiet for yourself?
Mindfulness
Yoga
Rise of it coinciding with rise in technology. Very interesting.
Minecraft--same skills as Lego, but using logic. Programming element. Community if you want to use that co-playing version.
Would parents limit kids to 1 hour of legos/day?
Deconstructing online presence for kids.
See how the high score makes you want to come back each day?
Why do they want you to do this?
So you can see the ad at the top of the page.
A guy went to work for Google and is developing a sort of tech "pesticide label". See a seal and know what it stands for, what you're going to be exposed to.
Want to get kids to design apps that get us back to the heart of the technology.
No blue light 1 hour before bed.
Giving fun assignments for them to do on the train when they are coming to school. Chapters of a book. Put together on computer once come together but show them that they can do important things during that free time, it doesn't always have to be full of games.
Computers are clean. Being human is messy.
Summer camps no tech policy. Isn't point of camp to show kids how to be grownups?
How to find quiet for yourself?
Mindfulness
Yoga
Rise of it coinciding with rise in technology. Very interesting.
Minecraft--same skills as Lego, but using logic. Programming element. Community if you want to use that co-playing version.
Would parents limit kids to 1 hour of legos/day?
Deconstructing online presence for kids.
See how the high score makes you want to come back each day?
Why do they want you to do this?
So you can see the ad at the top of the page.
A guy went to work for Google and is developing a sort of tech "pesticide label". See a seal and know what it stands for, what you're going to be exposed to.
Want to get kids to design apps that get us back to the heart of the technology.
No blue light 1 hour before bed.
Giving fun assignments for them to do on the train when they are coming to school. Chapters of a book. Put together on computer once come together but show them that they can do important things during that free time, it doesn't always have to be full of games.
Computers are clean. Being human is messy.
Summer camps no tech policy. Isn't point of camp to show kids how to be grownups?