This is the term project assignment, where you put together what you’ve learned and apply it to the assigned subject matter. I am keeping this one somewhat flexible at this point, simply because I need to speak to everyone and see how this assignment can work. So there may be revisions to what follows, don’t panic if it doesn’t seem to apply to your situation.

There are two parts to this assignment:

First, keep a journal of your use of your smart phone. Some things to try to document:

• Details
  • First, phone type, anything else relevant (designer case, etc.—you can include an image if you like), including your history of phone ownership, if it’s relevant;
  • when you use it;
  • where you use it;
  • how you use it (communicate [phone, text, social media], shop, play, watch, etc.); how long you use it (and where and when do you use it most; how long per day do you charge it, also, try to document all your time—in other words, hours sleeping, working, using phone, commuting, eating, reading, leisure, etc.), where you keep it (pocket, bag, etc.)
  • come up with some meaningful way to categorize how you use it (the boiler-plate apps with phones may not suit this assignment).
  • how often you use it.
• Socially
  • With whom are you interacting?
  • Personal (no need to get too personal with identities—use categories like immediate family, extended family, friends, co-workers, kids’ teachers, customer service, facebook friends…)
  • Work (distinguish between normal hours–in other words, is the phone extending your work day? And how do you use it for work–communicate with clients, co-workers, etc.)
• Other observations
  • e.g., do you notice other people’s phones? Do you attach any status or judgments to the types of phones people have [including flip phones]);
  • you can discuss your feelings about your phone—how important it is to you in terms of status, how it connects you to people, the world, etc.
  • any strong preferences you might have about phones or operating systems (Apple, Android, etc.).
  • habitual behaviors–do you find yourself checking your phone without really thinking about it, or during a lull in a conversation, as a social behavior, etc. Do you interact with people in your immediate physical space differently with a phone?
• On your day without
  • Thoughtful observations—how are you spending your time, how often do you think about your phone, how habitual are your thoughts about it (thinking of checking texts, etc.), is your mood affected by not using the phone,
  • Also—if you ‘cheat’ or can’t make it, don’t lie about it—this assignment is done for your benefit, to promp you to reflect in some depth about your use of technologies, in this case a set of technologies that could influence how your brain processes information, how your memory functions (in a way, how you learn). This isn’t about better or worse, it’s just about self-awareness and being honest about how you interact with your phone.

Second, compose a paper reflecting on your journal:

• Obviously, this means that the more care with which you do your journal, the more source material you’ll have to write the paper.
• You can organize your reflect paper as you like, but it should be organized in some fashion (and I have nothing against headings as a guide for readers!).
• I hope you’ll think about habitual vs purposive behavior on your phone as you do this assignment and reflect on it, qualitatively and quantitatively.
• Incorporate ideas and concepts from the assigned readings (below), not gratuitously, but thoughtfully and with as much useful detail as you can provide.

Readings to incorporate in the final paper

• Nicholas Carr. 2010. The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brain. NY: W.W. Norton (pp 179-98, ‘Search, Memory‘) (Get you thinking about the term project) In Canvas.
• Eli Pariser. 2011. The Filter Bubble. NY: Penguin Books (chapter 2, ‘The Race for relevance‘). (to Paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, ‘It’s the sort of thing that people who like this sort of thing are going to like’) In Canvas.
• Karen Rose, Scott Eldridge and Lyman Chapin. 2015. The Internet of Things: An Overview. October, The Internet Society. (Just read the executive summary on the linked page)
• Brooke Donald. 2016. Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online. Nov 22, Stanford Graduate School of Education. (executive summary here if you want to see how the study was conducted)
• Science Friday. 2017. Computer hacks of the future, and how to prevent them. Feb 24, ScienceFriday.com. (This is a podcast, useful for thinking about technological monocultures)
• Nellie Bowles. 2018. The digital gap between rich and poor kids is not what we expected. Oct 26, NY Times (pdf).
• Jill Markgraf. 2017. Evaluating information sources in a ‘fake news’ era. Jan 26, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
• Tristan Harris. 2016. How technology is hijacking your mind: From a magician and a Google design ethicist. May 18, Thrive Global.

Due in Canvas by midnight, December 4 (Sunday). 100 points possible.