Blog.
Herein lies a complete archive of the Slow Media blog I wrote for a decade. This blogging project started with my experiment in living for a year without a cellphone and for six months without the Internet. I updated the blog until redirecting my energies toward writing the book Slow Media: Why “Slow” is Satisfying, Sustainable & Smart for Oxford University Press. The blog post here narrates that journey.
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The joy of alternating between fast and slow
November 1, 2019
While Slow Media questions the desirability of going as fast as possible, it does not argue that people should do everything slow all the…
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Print and analog media revivals aren’t just “nostalgia”
October 15, 2019
Some people assume that Slow Media is a nostalgic or conservative reaction against digital culture. My research on the persistence of print and analog…
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“Obsolete” is in the eye of the beholder
October 1, 2019
In Slow Media communities, people don’t necessarily equate newer with better. Like cultural creatives and alternative media users, people who enjoy Slow Media are…
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“Slow Media”? It sure beats residual, legacy, heirloom, dead or zombie media
September 15, 2019
Many have pondered the endurance of old media in a digital world and observed how people reuse, repair, and recycle artifacts such as telephones,…
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You need an accelerator pedal AND a brake
September 1, 2019
How does mindfulness practice improve psychological and physical well-being? By stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which controls many automatic and involuntary actions as…
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What does the future hold for Slow Journalism?
August 15, 2019
Some proponents think the genre has great potential for marketing itself as a distinctive brand or anti-brand, resistant to the homogenizing standardization of mass-produced…
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Slow reading = deep thinking
August 1, 2019
Many reading experts advise us to go slower. According to Maryanne Wolf, the developmental psychologist and author of Proust and the Squid: The Story…
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Being mindful = slowing down your mind
July 15, 2019
Mindfulness teaches us to slow down, pay attention to media habits, and find new ways of relating to technology, other people, and ourselves. If…
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“Machinery hurtful to Commonality”
July 1, 2019
Like the Slow movement is today, Luddism was a struggle against industrial capitalism. Those preindustrial saboteurs fought against not machinery in general but a…
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People are “not designed to live at the speed of light”
June 15, 2019
Marshall McLuhan, the public intellectual often seen as a proselytizer for new technologies, suggested that the US should get rid of television for at…
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Slow Media honored with Silver Nautilus Book Award
June 8, 2019
Slow Media has won a prestigious Silver Nautilus Book Award, in honor of “its contribution to building a better world and its potent message…
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Slow Media joins forces with Douglas Rushkoff’s “Team Human”
June 7, 2019
Humanity now has an official team, and it has recruited Slow Media. I’m excited to be joining Team Human to talk with media theorist,…
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Let’s value diversity in media habits and practices
June 1, 2019
Just as our soil is enriched by growing lots of different things in different ways instead of having a monoculture, our society is enriched…
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Idler endorses SM:WSISSAS as “book of the week”
May 28, 2019
The charming magazine-academy-festival Idler (UK) has named Slow Media: Why “Slow” is Satisfying, Sustainable and Smart its “book of the week.” Editors noted that…
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Shaking the “more-faster-better” habit
May 15, 2019
Mindful media unsettles the assumption that fast is good and slow is bad. Our default mode for using media has become what David Levy…
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“Start taking the politics of time seriously”
May 1, 2019
The Slow perspective encourages us to challenge our assumptions about media choices, to look beyond speed, and to imagine alternatives that enhance both sustainability…
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You don’t have to go live in the woods (unless you want to)
April 15, 2019
What can you do to further the cause of Slow Media, as a citizen, student, colleague, and consumer? Just make time for enjoying print…
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Let’s use tech to promote pre-digital values: connection, creativity and respect
March 20, 2019
Douglas Rushkoff has long been one of my public-intellectual heroes – a short list that also includes Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein and Bob McChesney….
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“Looking for a dimmer switch on technology”
March 15, 2019
One of goal of Slow Media is to help subvert false or binary choices about digital media use. However, the larger problem is whether…
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Another media culture is possible
March 1, 2019
Slow Media, like Slow Food, encourages people to reassess consumer culture, to conserve natural resources, to resist commodification, to fight standardization, and to preserve…
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Let’s break the clocks and refuse the quickening of our lives
February 15, 2019
Few could have predicted two decades ago that Slow Food visions of the good life would inspire such innovative thinking about how our media…
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A Slow News Podcast from Denmark
December 15, 2018
A group of young journalism students in Aarhus, Denmark, have launched the new podcast “Slow News.” They aim to give listeners an alternative to…
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Now Streaming for Kids: Slow TV
December 14, 2018
Vermont PBS has launched a new children’s show that aims to promote emotional awareness and development in its viewers through respect, inclusion and participation….
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Slow Words in Italy
November 15, 2018
Venice-based Diana Marrone started Slow Words in 2012 as a hybrid of literary fanzine and readers club that celebrates poems, songs and a wide…
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The Nine-Year Quest to Publish “Slow Media”
October 8, 2018
“Congrats, I can imagine that getting a book out to the world is quite a process!” That’s the kind of thing people have been…
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Gratification, Delayed and Belated
August 25, 2018
My new issue of Delayed Gratification just arrived, and it’s gorgeous. As you can see (below), the packaging is almost as pretty as the…
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It was Eight Years Ago…
July 7, 2018
Starting in July 2011, I went offline and shunned digital media for six months — just as an experiment, to see what it was…
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Moleskine Journaling by Students
April 23, 2018
The assignment for my Slow Media class: Carry a journal with you for one week. Write or draw whatever you want in it. Just…
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The Slow Art of Printmaking
March 26, 2018
During my year of living slowly, I took a printmaking class with the lovely and talented Hilary Lorenz of Stone Trigger Press. Hilary’s work…
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Going Slower… in More Ways Than One
January 27, 2014
Inspired by Slow Food, a lot of people—including me—have suggested that it’s better for our brains, bodies and society when we read, communicate, and…
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Arianna Huffington Espouses Slow News Movement
June 22, 2012
First Slow Media, Slow Communication, Slow Reading… now Slow News and Slow Blogging? "A world of too much data, too many choices, too many…
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Spoiler Alert: The Answer is Frequently “No”
May 3, 2012
Here's a clever flow chart that explores the socio-psychological motivations of checking your e-mail. (Props to graphic artist Wendy MacNaughton for making this and…
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Happy Unplugging Day!
March 23, 2012
A little humor in honor of the National Day of Unplugging (March 23-24 this year). Reboot, who promotes this annual event, even participated…
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Protest visionary: E-mail feels like “denial-of-service attack against my brain”
December 30, 2011
Adbusters editor and protest motivator Micah White prefers people to send letters to his snail-mail address. His website reads: "Micah does not use Facebook,…
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A third of Americans still resisting Facebook
December 29, 2011
Jenna Wortham might be a kindred spirit. As a tech reporter at the NY Times, she's written about young people who are indifferent to…
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Wortham redux: “Zine resurgence among the web-savvy”
December 29, 2011
Photo courtesy of Tea Tree Gully Library. It's a city in South Australia, the undisputed land of Slow Media lovers. Despite having access…
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Signs of slowness in Australia
November 19, 2011
With Australia in the news now, it reminded me of a lingering question: Why do people down under seem especially interested in Slow Media…
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Slow Media Movement coalescing into brick-and-mortar
October 5, 2011
I haven’t been posting much since I went back online nine months ago, because I’m still trying to keep a lid on my Internet…
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Have you ever had a “Melonballer Moment”?
August 27, 2011
Sally Herships of NPR’s Marketplace coined a great phrase in this broadcast, which aired in February: Melonballer Moments, referring to the time you unintentionally…
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Back online, somewhat ambivalently
January 24, 2011
People sent me a lot of postcards during the digital-detox experiment, but this one is probably my favorite since it combines postcard, newspaper and…
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Going Offline: How to Become the Proverbial “Fish out of Water”
June 30, 2010
With three days to go before taking the red pill, it's probably a good time to sketch the contours of the Slow Media experiment…
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More Student Reactions to Slow Media
May 31, 2010
A few months ago, the students in my Media & Culture class spent some time engaging with Slow Media and then reflecting on their…
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The Slow Media Project Got Harder
May 30, 2010
A view of my iGoogle home page on my new all-in-one iMac (left) versus the same page on my old Dell laptop (right). …
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“Slow Foxtrot Media: One medium at a time”
April 30, 2010
A newspaper in Montreal recently ran this article contemplating Slow Media, or — as Babelfish has mysteriously rendered it — "Slow Foxtrot Media." (Maybe…
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Vive la liberté!
April 28, 2010
The Slow Media Project has moved forward by leaps and bounds this month, despite (or perhaps due to) there being scant evidence of such…
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A new ritual: Unplugging for a day of rest
March 31, 2010
I've been meaning to make a suggestion for a while now: Let's use the Sabbath as an occasion to take a break from digital…
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The fading art of letter-writing
March 26, 2010
WNYC’s Leonard Lopate caught my attention when he began this radio program about letter-writing by asking, “Can you remember the last time you sat…
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“Workers of the World, Unplug!”
March 25, 2010
What does the Slow Media Movement have in common with Slow Food? Roger Buddenberg of the Omaha World-Herald explains this, and more, in his…
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Postcard experiment redux
March 13, 2010
Attentive readers will remember that last fall, I began a little experiment by sending some vintage postcards (above) to a couple dozen friends and…
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Digital divides: Going offline in South Korea and online in Nigeria
March 10, 2010
Recent BBC reports reveal some strange goings-on in South Korea, the "most wired nation on Earth," where social networking was practically invented. In a…
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Digital media and the 40-hour work week
March 3, 2010
Not long ago, Nina Lentini edited one daily newsletter, worked from 9 to 6 at home Monday through Friday, and enjoyed nights, weekends and…
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The discovery of the digital tardiness (and my new nom-de-plume, Jennifer Smoke)
February 19, 2010
The German public radio network, ZDF, ran this great snail photo with its recent story about Slow Media, which follows below (as translated by…
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ISO: Electric Dreams from the Beeb
February 7, 2010
Does anyone know where to get copies of BBC television programs that aren't being marketed on DVD? I'm eager to acquire "Electric Dreams," this…
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Is e-mailing more like “writing” or more like “talking”?
February 1, 2010
The Pew Internet in American Life Project released a fascinating report last month on "Teens, Technology & Writing" that concluded, "Teens write a lot,…
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Celebrate National Handwriting Day
January 24, 2010
How's your penmanship these days? With the development of more affordable and sophisticated writing gadgets, American Educator magazine notes, "It seems the death of…
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Texting costs $749 per megabyte, and other techno-skeptic holiday tales from my family
January 15, 2010
My family has enjoyed chiming in on the Slow Media critique. For example, my aunt gave me this amusing coffee mug that serves as…
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I heart digital media. Really!
January 6, 2010
Somehow, people have gotten the idea that I hate digital media. I'm not exactly sure how this happened. Maybe it's because I write a…
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A belated Christmas gift to me (and you)
January 4, 2010
It's always heartening for a teacher when students start applying class lessons to their lives — even after the semester is over. One of…
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“The weirdest three hours I ever spent,” student says
December 18, 2009
Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that students in my Mass Media & Culture class were ambivalent toward my critique of digital communication and my…
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I read the newspaper (so others don’t have to)
November 11, 2009
I love the New York Times. I live in New York City. And I'm a journalism professor. So I feel like it's my personal,…
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The rotary phone: Now, that’s *really* slow media
October 28, 2009
Sometimes, when people react to my Slow Media project, they make me feel like the grumpy old duffer in this video, who thinks all…
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The library of the subconscious
October 22, 2009
There's a small pile of books accumulating on my shelves… stuff that I've been buying and hording (i.e. not reading) for the…
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My Slow Media diet: How will it work? For how long?
October 20, 2009
I've been referring to my pending experiment as a digital media fast, or something like that. I'm thinking, though, that terms like "abstinence," "avoidance"…
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You may be right, I may be crazy, but…
October 13, 2009
I've hatched this idea whereby I'm planning to totally abstain from digital media, for a substantial period of time. No Internet, no cellphone, no…
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The digital juggernaut: Resistance isn’t futile!
October 5, 2009
Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, after his assimilation by the Borg. Whenever I see people walking down the street wearing…
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More signs of a Slow Media Movement… on Facebook
September 28, 2009
People keep pointing out to me the apparent "irony" of fueling a digital-media resistance movement via the Internet. Many critics of the present environment,…
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The true cost of digital media, Exhibit A: Handwriting
September 25, 2009
This 2009 handwriting sample comes from an adult male in Brooklyn, New York.
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Desert island medium
September 23, 2009
If you were stuck alone on a desert island for three days and could pick one single medium to use, which would it be?…
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Digital natives, digital immigrants…
September 23, 2009
We were talking last week in my Media & Culture class about Neil Postman's views on "technopoly," the idea that technology is not only…
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Technophiles and technophobes
September 23, 2009
In the Mass Media & Culture class, we've been talking about different theories about and attitudes toward the role of media technologies in our…
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My postcard experiment
September 14, 2009
Some of the vintage postcards that my friends might — or might not — have received recently. To indulge my new fetish for slow…
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Media & Culture class
September 9, 2009
Students in the “Media & Culture” class (JOU 109) at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University will be contributing to this blog during…
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Is there a “Slow Media Movement,” or is it just me?
September 8, 2009
"South Park" creators Matt Stone & Trey Parker made this animation, featuring Zen philosopher Alan Watts, that criticizes the culture of busy-ness. Communication is…
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From my contrarian, technoskeptical, alienated perspective
September 5, 2009
Six years and counting! My trusty cellphone-slash-pet might be old and doesn't have a text plan — but it still holds a full charge…
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The Ministry of Melancholic Nostalgia for Thing-ness
September 3, 2009
For Edward Gorey, even letters to Mom featured whimsical illustrations from his morbid imagination. (Photo copyright Goreyography.com) I found myself captivated this summer by…