Deviced!

Doreen Dodgen-Magee, PsyD, is a psychologist with over twenty-five years of experience working with individuals and groups in Portland, Oregon. She also maintains a national and international speaking docket and is followed online where she posts challenges for living moderately with tech and wildly in embodied spaces. Doreen’s main passion is engaging people about how the new digital landscape is shaping humanity. She also is a nationally recognized gun violence prevention activist.

• Part I: The Big Picture on How Devices Are Impacting Us1. There’s No Such Thing as IRL2. This Applies to You (and Me and Every Other Person)3. Living Outside Our Skin4. Our Bodies and Brains on Tech 5. Technology and Relationships6. Technology and the SelfPart II: Moving with Intention Toward a Grounded Self 7. The Fertile Ground of Idle Time8. Cultivating an Internal Locus of ControlPart III: Telling Ourselves the Truth and Finding a New Balance9. Habits and Norms10. Assessing Our Technology Use and Making Adjustments11. Spotting Points and the Fiery Life12. Getting to Decide (and Being Cheered on for Doing So!)

Psychologist Dodgen-Magee makes a detail-rich, persuasive case for the need to embrace technology yet also “make some conscious decisions about what place we want technology to hold in our lives.” The dilemma, as she explains it, is that people feel “gratitude for the ways that technology benefits society” but “many are experiencing niggling questions about how a near-constant engagement with devices” affects everyday life. The concerns range from losing touch with the physical senses and having “no sense of our larger environs” to obesity and social isolation. “Take Action” sidebars throughout the book offer suggestions for modifying behavior, along with strong reasons for doing so. People’s lives are changing irrevocably and unintentionally, Dodgen-Magee points out; increased interaction with one’s device encourages a blinkered perspective as users merely “reflect [their] own little worlds back to [themselves].” The overall message Dodgen-Magee strongly presents is the necessity of moving toward “intention” regarding one’s use of devices and technology. A five-component assessment tool will help users understand their “tech engagement and impact” and then develop appropriate “delay skills.” Dodgen-Magee leaves readers with a “Ten (RICH) Minutes a Day” exercise, useful in its simplicity, grounded in meditation, and firmly directed toward “emotional well-being.” This educational, encouraging book leaves its audience with a plethora of helpful suggestions.