Craig Constantine

Calm technology →

Published January 18, 2023 · All posts on Jan 18 · Internet Tech, Calm technology, 7 for Sunday

The most potentially interesting, challenging, and profound change implied by the ubiquitous computing (UC) era is a focus on calm. If computers are everywhere they better stay out of the way, and that means designing them so that the people being shared by the computers remain serene and in control. Calmness is a new challenge that UC brings to computing. When computers are used behind closed doors by experts, calmness is relevant to only a few. Computers for personal use have focused on the excitement of interaction. But when computers are all around, so that we want to compute while doing something else and have more time to be more fully human, we must radically rethink the goals, context and technology of the computer and all the other technology crowding into our lives. Calmness is a fundamental challenge for all technological design of the next fifty years. The rest of this paper opens a dialogue about the design of calm technology.
Designs that encalm and inform meet two human needs not usually met together. Information technology is more often the enemy of calm. Pagers, cellphones, news-services, the World Wide Web, email, TV, and radio bombard us frenetically. Can we really look to technology itself for a solution?
But some technology does lead to true calm and comfort. There is no less technology involved in a comfortable pair of shoes, in a fine writing pen, or in delivering the New York Times on a Sunday morning, than in a home PC. Why is one often enraging, the others frequently encalming? We believe the difference is in how they engage our attention. Calm technology engages both the center and the periphery of our attention, and in fact moves back and forth between the two.
~ Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown, from The Coming Age of Calm Technology

slip:4ujoca1.

Calm technology is designed to be unobtrusive and blend in with daily life. The opposite is technology that is distracting and disruptive, creating agitation and stress.

Calm technology

Never before have I seen, nor imagined, the adjective calm associated with technology. It never occurred to me to question where technology falls on a spectrum of calming to agitating. Mark my words: Calm technology is going to get mentioned by me going forward.

There’s your problem →

Published December 3, 2021 · All posts on Dec 3 · Calm technology

Read the headline, tap, scroll, tap, tap, scroll.
~ Shane Parrish from, How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality

slip:4ufofi2.

Well, there’s your problem. Right there in that first line of that article.

But it’s not your fault. There’s a huge asymmetry in the modern struggle.

The solution isn’t to flee, but rather to grab all the technology doo-dads by the, err… doo-dads and make them do your bidding. Notice when something annoys you, and then take the time—it might be seconds, minutes, hours or days—to solve that problem. Triple-word score if you can eliminate something entirely; delete your account from one social network that you’re ok with being without… that fixes annoying notifications. Delete an app. Find some web sites, (hey thanks for following mine,) that work the way you want them to. Subscribe to email if you like, use RSS if you like, etc.

Treating people like they’re smart →

Published November 15, 2018 · All posts on Nov 15 · Calm technology

Blogs are different. There’s a presumption of informed mature decision making. I come out with a new book, I mention it and then we all move on. You’re smart. You can handle it.
~ Seth Godin from, Treating people like they’re smart

slip:4usete13.

You may have noticed that there’s nothing other than [what’s called] the “center well” on my blog.

Perhaps you have you wondered why that is?

The end of solitude: Overtaken by technology →

Published November 5, 2016 · All posts on Nov 5 · Calm technology

How, then, can we find and embrace emptiness in the sea of digital activity we swim through every day? The possibility of constant communication and information can make us allergic to absence. It’s not just that the technology is ubiquitous, invasive, and addicting. Its presence in our lives belies the deeper issue that the Wilson study touched upon: the ability to sit still with ourselves.
~ Susan Cain from, «http://www.quietrev.com/the-end-of-solitude-overtaken-by-technology/»

slip:4uqute2.