Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy is provocative. In our go-go-go, do-do-do society, an artist's plea to slow down and consider the way our device's have capture our attention is a revolutionary statement. The book has inspired a good deal of conversation around Middlebury's Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry, and was an inspiration for 2020's digital detox series. In order to keep those conversations alive, we decided to go back to the source and start a book club to explore O'Dell's thesis in-depth.
The book club's structure is based on Bryan Alexander’s digital book clubs. For how to join meetings, how to participate through social media, or information on how to start your own book club, please check out February 20: Getting Started for more information.
One thing that O'Dell's book makes clear is that "doing nothing" requires a fair bit of contemplation. The book club is deliberately structured to give participants two weeks to read and re-read the chapter. All readers need to keep in mind on the first read is how they might "do nothing" as O'Dell describes? Then, Steven will send out the discussion questions for the second week, helping guide re-reading and informing discussions with peers.
This book club met from February 20-May 7, 2020 on Thursdays @ 12pm PT/3pm ET and @ 4pm ET/7pm PT. The early session was facilitated by Sailee Rangolee and the later session by Steven James Mockler.
March 5: Surviving Usefulness, The Case for Nothing
Mar. 26: The Impossibility of Retreat, Anatomy of a Refusal
Apr. 9: Exercises in Attention
Apr 23: Ecology of Strangers, Restoring the Grounds for Thought
https://images4.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9781612198552
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.
Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world. — From Penguin Random House