Hi my name is Soren Sadr, I recently got out of the military, before that I took ESL at Delaware tech, this is my first time studying after high school and I don't really have a lot experience, but I am gonna try my best . my major is biological science but I may changed it next year to computer science because I love computers and I never get tired learning about it . Interesting facts about me are I am really friendly , I love playing video games , soccer is my favorite sport and I like camping
I read Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville. Herman does not note what his story is about and it’s up to a reader to figure out the point of the story. Even though Jenny Odell in “how to do nothing” only mentions Bartleby as an example of refusal, but on My essay other than talking about refusal I also talked about Bartleby’s isolation and how his decision to be away from society affected his life.
Both Jenny Odell and Herman talk about capitalism and how it affects society. In Bartleby’s story we can see how capitalism affects workers in the workplace and how it divided society of upper and lower class. In Jenny Odell’s book we can see capitalism is mostly throughout the advertisement, social media and technology.
Our world is truly distracting. Concentration is harder. We got much more overwhelmed by technology and social media that holding our attention among too many distractions is challenging. Most people use social media and technology in an unproductive way. People have forgotten the true meaning of this world. like all the electronic devices our brain needs to charge too. Jenny Odell mentioned in her book about the importance of detoxing and taking a break from technology. We all need to recharge and think to ourselves what we really want and how to accomplish it. I didn’t believe that until I read her .Reading her book made me see that I wasted so much time on social media rather than learning new things or even realize what I really want to achieve in my life and discovering the beautiful world that I am living in .
In my essay I am attempting to explain how recharging has it’s own benefits, and how it impacted my life and productivity.
Have you ever thought about the good feeling you have when you detox your body? You feel fresher and fitter and healthier. Now think about digital detox a break from social media, your phone, laptop and products like that. We totally need a digital detox. Like jenny Odell in a cabin on her trip to Nevada or Levi Felix hospitalization. It was a digital detox for him and made him realize that he was a lot happier than he was before and he opened a camp grounded a digital detox summer camp for adults in California, or me losing my phone on a trip to New York. That was my digital detox, I was really upset that I lost my phone, but it helped me to pick up a great lot of matters and communicate more with people around me.
Jenny Odell, “Media companies trying to keep up with each other create a kind of “arms race” of urgency that abuses our attention and leave us no time to think.” They use their tricks to keep us on their platforms for too long like red color and number of notification badges, intermittent variable notifications and textual ads these are some of their tricks that keeps us busy without even knowing that we are being tricked by social media . People have lost their attention to the economy. Our care has shifted on media and not the economy anymore Thinking about our society and capitalism reminded me that a few years ago I saw an experimental video, a math teacher passed a lot of homework to students with an unrealistic time hack everyone were so upset but not even a single student said anything. Next day when they were asking them why nobody said anything. They said we thought somebody else will. Just like our economy. no one wants to do anything for the economy we live in. our economy needs our attention and the only way we could make a change is that everyone participating. Thiel, “
the fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism”. Jenny Odell talks about how she believes that people are losing their ability of refusal and I agree. We are becoming overly busy with media that we do not pay attention to the world around us. Why can we refuse to not smoke, drink, eat, or anything that is not pleasant for us, but we cannot refuse to not support the capitalism. Ability of refusal is important and effective. Pilvi Takala, Diogenes and Bartley are perfect example are refusal. Refusal is an ability to say no to unwanted situations for instance capitalism if people use their refusal ability and do not promote media. capitalism will be gone, and people become more productive. I think what Odell was trying to say in those chapters are people are losing their refusal ability and not paying attention to the economy. Our economy needs us and if we do not do anything about it, we will face sever consequences.
In this essay, I am going to talk about how Jenny Odell believes productivity is affected by capitalism and technology. Odell uses quotes and personal experiences to help her express her viewpoint on how capitalism, in general, is negatively affecting our lives.
Odell believes technology and advertisements have changed the way we live, and that people should be able to do as they please with their time and creative minds without financial penalty. She holds that the society we live in today, with numerous references to our President, is being harmed by technology, the attention we devote to it, and the continuous need to produce that stems from our capitalist system.
The author says: ”I think that ‘doing nothing’…brings about real change.” These days you can do anything you want online from video calling and chatting, to online shopping and more. Odell is not necessarily against technology; she is against the way it has taken over our lives and our productivity. People waste so much time with technology that they forget the real meaning of life. Essentially, Odell believes we are like robots that are being controlled by capitalism. The system budgets our time and limits us on how we spend it, changing the true meaning of productivity. Odell references the culture of Trump and how being productive to them is scrolling down a social media page or making things to sell. How to Do Nothing seems to hold the point of view that technology catches too much of our attention and is destroying the true meaning of life.
If we have less attention to the real world and such a short life to live , we must change the way we live, and turn our attention to the real world. Odell wants people to be able to explore more about the world we are living in and do the things we are passionate about. “Doing nothing” in Odell’s opinion, has its benefits. She argues that sometimes you need to do nothing and just listen. Listen to everything around us. Jenny Odell said, “like a deer going to a salt lick or goat going to the top of a hill” sometimes being useless is useful like a tree named Old Survivor. As she mentioned in her story, the reason Old Survivor had lasted so long is that people thought that tree was useless, so that uselessness became useful and saved the tree.
The author of this book wants us to simply stop and listen to everything around us. In turn, in her mind, “doing nothing” will help us change our attitude towards the world and explore new things that we were not aware of. Doing nothing is different for each person. For Odell, it was when she was sitting on a bench at the rose garden observing a bird. For someone else, it could be staring at mountains, or sitting by the river. Basically, it is doing anything other than being on our phones or scrolling through social media or working to build or produce something for profit. Jenny Odell’s dad is a perfect example of how doing nothing has changed his attitude and perspective. By not working for two years, eliminating technology from his daily life, and taking in nature, “doing nothing” gave him a new perspective on his previous job. Odell makes the point that sometimes people need some alone time to think about their life to see if they are genuinely enjoying it. Otherwise, people will just live to live without any goals.
Odell said, “I hear, see, and smell things in a world where others also hear, see, and smell me. And it takes a break to remember that: a break to do nothing, to just listen, to remember in the deepest sense what, when and where we are.” With this statement, she is essentially saying we are all living in the same world, with different perspectives based on our individual experiences, and she’s encouraging us to stop and listen and look around to find meaning in life beyond simply being a useful tool in society’s machine. Using technology is not bad; in fact, it is helpful with many aspects of life. We all use technology on a daily basis, and it is critical to advance as other countries are advancing. With that being said, some people get lost in technology and they forget the real meaning of life and reason of existence. Odell makes the argument that capitalists and culture are controlling us and taking our time away and changing the real meaning of our life.
In conclusion, I think what Odell’s trying to tell us in this chapter is we are so busy with technology that we do not have time to just relax and practice deep listening. We do not have time to channel our passions and if we are living the life we genuinely want. The world we are living has so many beautiful things that we are not aware of and by stopping and listening to everything around us will help us to change our attitude and productivity.
E110: Seminar in Composition 