Robots but Humans: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Ressler & Thompson

Essay link:

https://hoqas.medium.com/robots-but-humans-reading-jenny-odell-reading-ressler-thompson-e29888c2fd1e

To live in this digital world, we must be productive. Otherwise, the person would be considered to be lazy in society. Therefore, in the two books How to do Nothing Resisting the Attention Economy and Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution the authors discuss the issue of productivity and offer different solutions to the issue. In Jenny Odell’s book How To Do Nothing, she references many different resources to better explain her ideas. One of these references is Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution. Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson is about the idea that the way we think and believe about work which is working forty hours five days a week is out of date and it does not work. Both books agree that in this capitalist society all people have to be productive. Odell discusses that in the productive digital world today makes it hard to do nothing. People are always busy doing something. similarly ,  Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson went further and demonstrated how the expectations of being productive lead people to pretend to be productive even when they are free. The two books  provide different solutions to the issue. Odell  generally suggests that people should be given the time to do nothing. On the other hand, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson claim that in order to solve this issue the world shell uses ROWE. ROWE is a human resource management strategy that pays employees based on their work results rather than the number of hours they spend at work.

Disappearance of Our Privacy

The essay Disappearance of our privacy argues that social media steals our privacy. That essay explains that Internet sites have eliminated the idea of ​​”privacy”. By stealing our internet data, the media is taking away our privacy. Social Media sites steal our information through three main ways they collect information. First way, social media sites collect data and information from the user’s accounts such as their date of birth, gender, address, etc. the information they search for. Second way, they keep track of what type of information you search for. Third way, they look at what type of videos you frequently watch. The essay describes the idea of stealing our privacy to make money brings the argument about the attention of the economy. The idea of being productive all the time is applied when we excessively use social media and as we mentioned social media is stealing our privacy. The essay also provides 6 tips that we can do to protect what is left of our privacy. First, do not post too much personal information. Second, take advantage of the privacy settings on the social media sites. Third, Beware of strange accounts. Fourth, beware of links. Fifth, use a strong and complex password. Finally, do not link your accounts to untrusted apps.

ESSAY LINK

https://hoqas.medium.com/disappearance-of-our-privacy-4c24cd32f15b

Reference

Odell, J. (2019). How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House.

Trust in the social media world — Tick Yes Blog. (n.d.). October 10, 2020.

Social Media and Politics

Unlike the first chapter Odell expands her ideas and concepts beyond the self-care. She writes more about the technological, political, and economical. aspect of the world. As Odell mentions in chapter two there are significant impacts of technological development on human life and the development of societies. Technological development has brought more levels of well-being to humans in various educational, practical, and industrial. She explained that the technology. that there are many negatives of technology used and risks on the individual and society. She emphasizes that loss of dependency and freedom. Which means that the more individuals who depend on computers and different types of technology, the heavy reliance on technology they will be a weakness and makes them less independent and free. Which is totally true for example, when I was in Yemen, I did not use much technology, during that time I was living during time where I felt more independent and freer. However, when I moved to America and start reliant on technology, I realized that many of the choices I made are always influenced by social media and technology. Also, an Odell said during the political elections, social media played an important rule on convincing people to vote for specific political party.

 In addition to technology Odell talks more about politics and economical influence that it makes to individuals’ life. According to Odell, “Unfortunately, she concludes, “the hallmark of all such escapes is rule, that is, the notion that men can lawfully and politically live together only when some are entitled to command and the others forced to obey”(Chapter 2, beginning). Policies controls everything, thus the idea of just creating an environment in which a person is free it impossible. There is no place in the world today where people can go and life peacefully and free for many reasons and the biggest in politics. Odell says, “Politics necessarily exist between even two individuals with free will; any attempt to reduce politics to design (Thiel’s “machinery of freedom”) is also an attempt to reduce people to machines or mechanical beings. So, when Thiel writes of “new technologies that may create a new space for freedom,” I hear only an echo of Frazier: “Their behavior is determined, yet they’re free.” (Chapter 2 mid). Adding to Odell saying, political environment today will not leave those who want to be free from economical control and technology. They would do things such as killing them or forcing international laws that will cause problems to them. Politics want to keep people productive any busy is they leave these people alone that will encourage more people to do the same. Which is something the countries will not want their citizen to do. Additionally, Odell provide examples of philosophers who apply the idea of political freedom. Also, a previous experience of history where people movements of getting away from society and doing their own thing fail.  Odell points out at Robert Houriet talks when he spoke about the reasons that caused these communes to fail.

Odell also explains that although we all want to be free of social media and economical influence we cannot escape. We can take a break for couple of days, but we cannot escape forever. Odell states, “Given the current reality of my digital environment, distance for me usually means things like going on a walk or even a trip, staying off the Internet, or trying not to read the news for a while. But the problem is this: I can’t stay out there forever, neither physically nor mentally. As much as I might want to live in the woods where my phone doesn’t work, or shun newspapers with Michael Weiss at his cabin in the Catskills, or devote my life to contemplating potatoes in Epicurus’s garden, total renunciation would be a mistake. The story of the communes teaches me that there is no escaping the political fabric of the world (unless you’re Peter Thiel, in which case there’s always outer space). The world needs my participation more than ever. Again, it is not a question of whether, but how.” (chapter 2, ending). This really important paragraph in which Odell talk about activism. She tells the reading that we have to come back to the digital world help make an impact. Do we  can to make an impact and the first thing we should do it changing ourselves first.

Productivity and self-care

How to do Nothing Resisting the Attention economy is a book written by Jenny Odell in which she discusses her perspective about self-help in the world today. Although Odell titled her book how to do nothing, ironically, she encourages the audience to do acts that will lead to self-help. In each chapter of the book she discusses different points and ideas that will help the readers change. In chapter one, Odell focus of self-care and deep listening, and attitude change.

First, as Odell mentioned in the introduction of the book in the digital productive world today it is hard to do nothing. People are always busy doing something. As a result, people hardly have anytime for self-care, and they do not consider it. According to the book, “Nothing is harder to do than nothing. In a world where our value is determined by our productivity, many of us find our every last minute captured, optimized, or appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies we use daily” (Para.1 of intro). Odell’s experience in the Rose Garden made her realize that doing nothing and self- care is important. In free quite places such as garden where people are not distracted and not saying anything people can better take care of themselves. Odell states, “I find myself gravitating toward these kinds of spaces—libraries, small museums, gardens, columbaria—because of the way they unfold secret and multifarious perspectives even within a fairly small area.” (Ch.1, pg.4). In addition, she address the problem that places such as gardens are in risk of getting rid them because of the capitalist system in which we live on. Everything in the world that is not productive assumed to not be important in the capitalist system. Odell says in the book, “That’s because this kind of thing always seems to be happening: those spaces deemed commercially unproductive are always under threat, since what they “produce” can’t be measured or exploited or even easily identified—despite the fact that anyone in the neighborhood can tell you what an immense value the garden provides”(ch.1 mid).

Second, self-care make the person become Deep listener. When there is nothing to do or say people can hear their surroundings better. Based on Odell experience with the birds, these hours of doing nothing unable her to recognize the bird’s different voices. She said, “I started learning each song and associating it with a bird” (Ch.1). In addition, deep listening also refers to the abilities to understand each other differences and ideas. She said, “As Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist who records natural soundscapes, put it: ”23 “Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything. Unfortunately, our constant engagement with the attention economy means that this is something many of us (myself included) may have to relearn. Even with the problem of the filter bubble aside, the platforms that we use to communicate with each other do not encourage listening. Instead they reward shouting and oversimple reaction: of having a “take” after having read a single headline” (ch.1.end). throughout the chapter Odell uses many artists, writers, economists, academic and stories books etc. to better demonstrates the concepts.

Third, having time for self-care changes people attitude towards life. People are always busy; as a result, they do not have to reevaluate their decisions. Odell shows how the distraction lead many people to take quick decisions and not have enough time to think. Odell provided her father experience self-care, to show that self- care can largely change how person think. She said, “As it turns out, my dad went through his own period of removal when he was my age and working as a technician in the Bay Area. He’d gotten fed up with his job and figured he had enough saved up to quit and live extremely cheaply for a while” (Ch.1 mid). Odell wants to show the readers that self-care helps them positively change their life.

In conclusion, Odell in her book, “How to do Nothing Resisting the Attention economy”, she aims to provide an activist book that consider self-help. In order to offers the readers something that can change their life. To achieve this goal, she uses her personal experience, others experience, academic books, poets, real place such as the garden. She connects those examples by adding them in to support to introduce a concept she discusses.