For the past couple of months, I haven’t been able to put my feelings about my tech usage into words. I posted a blog about my tech usage, but how does that compare to the other times that I’m not specifically avoiding tech?

During my first course of graduate school, we’ve been putting our brains to work. Learning about deep focus and habits of the distracted brain. I wanted to use words to describe what we were doing, but I couldn’t find them. I wanted to compare it to Critical Race Theory (CRT), but no – that’s not quite right.

Critical Theory of Technology is exactly the term I had been wanting to use. I was using my critical thinking and deep work to focus on the assignments given to me. However, I was (and still am) distracted by my phone and its various notifications. In which ways are these distractions going to effect society? How are we going to ever get anything done when we’re surrounded by constant distractions, and tech that’s being made to distract us? What are the habits of the now-children going to be when they’re adults?

States have already began banning social media platforms (cough cough TikTok) because of where the apps were developed and what kind of content was coming through. So why can’t we ban certain designs to exploitive tech in the same way? We know what harms us and how, but big tech has made it the individual’s problem when the blame should land on the companies.