Fight Tech with Tech: Take Control of Your Digital Environment

Taking a break from your always-connected computer and phone can do wonders for your state of mind. But what happens when you inevitably return to the digital realm, and find yourself in a world of advertisements, polarized comment threads, and endless sources of instant gratification? Good news: there's an app for that! Actually, there are a growing number of tools to help you personalize your internet experience to be better for your mental health -- and if there isn't one that meets your needs, you just might be able to code one yourself.

Transcript

1. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT FIGHT TECH WITH TECH!
2. Me & Tech: We go way back… Middle school High school College
3. 2016: It was time to retreat… …for 4 months! nyingmainstitute.com
4. Watching the mind while… Meditating Sweeping Washing Dishes Yoga’ing Painting Eavesdropping
5. Eavesdropping Yes,
6. I want to be A Good Person© I want to feel safe! Why, mind, why?
7. CHANGE MY ENVIRONMENT! It was time to…
8. Ah, the sound of silence…
9. What did I learn?
10. BACK TO THE REAL WORLD - Oh noes! Retreat over -
11. BACK TO THE REAL WORLD Friends! Dancing! Costumes!
12. I was avoiding one thing….
13. or…
14. TECHNOLOGY IS A TOOL Why not both? And tools can be used for good or bad.
15. Coding is so fun!
16. Except when… Agghhh, this is hard.
17. DISTRACTION TIME! Just A Tab Away
18. They lure you in…
19. …whether you like it or not humanetech.com/app-ratings
20. CHANGE MY ENVIRONMENT! It was time to…
21. No News is Good News (for me) sudo vi /etc/hosts
22. “Never read comments on the internet.” - Someone Famous https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-comments-everywhere/bmhkdngdngchlneelllmdennfpmepbnc
23. FACEBOOK Oh,
24. Bye bye, News feed! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kill-news-feed/hjobfcedfgohjkaieocljfcppjbkglfd
25. YouTube “Recommendations”, everywhere!
26. Ah, white space! ytd-browse[role="main"][page-subtype="home"] #contents { visibility: hidden !important; } https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-unhooked/fkhfakakdbjcdipdgnbfngaljiecclaf
27. Medium But I just came here to write…
28. Aw, how kind of you to ask! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chaldheffndbdmcoehdjhdllpnchffdo
29. Twitter Okay, so I’m anti-social…
30. Mirror media! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/imcokhibdjkdgepeadnipppignmnicnb
31. Tech to Fight Tech There’s so much more… habitlab.stanford.edu humanetech.com
32. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT FIGHT TECH WITH TECH! P.S. You can also use non-tech to fight tech, like meditative and attention training practices, but that’s a talk for another day….