be quiet – less computer

I’m enjoying and appreciating Bianca’s newish lesscomputer.ca project* - a “handbook … for people who agree that talking about how we use computers more is a good idea” - for its intended focus, but perhaps what I’m enjoying most is that if you squint to obscure that narrow focus - computers and their contemporary use - what Bianca’s offering is generalized good advice. See, from her latest, redacted:

“…the act of being quiet is critical to give some of these topics room to breathe. A lot of what is said about the future […] fails to materialize with the passage of time. This suggestion to be quiet pairs closely with the idea of deciding not to act on something quickly, to allow it to settle for a beat. Being quiet is part of slowing down, one of the most critical responses to urgency. Refuse urgency at every turn possible. When people scramble to respond to […] urgency […], they inadvertently end up installing its desires. […] Taking time to consider what [our] responses are actually doing makes any response more likely to be done on our terms.

Being quiet is a critical and somewhat counterintuitive part of good conversations […]. By being more intentional about what you decide to put your attention on, you can stay focused with a persistence on the issues that matter and let the general noise pass you by, untouched.”

*Excerpted from her Author’s Note:

“There is a lot of thinking and writing on the topic of computers that suggest there are ways to design and develop computers to be more human, more safe, more responsible, more ethical. The inconvenient reality, however, is that if a society is sick, its computer culture will be sick too. That’s where we are today. There’s no way to have a healthy computer culture running through a profoundly messed up society.

It’s been about thirty years since the internet went mainstream. I’ve had the luxury (?) of working with computers for most of those years, in addition to having a career as a facilitator where I helped run public meetings, mostly in cities. Through all of this, I’ve been able to see some of the patterns of how power and people and computers come together, and how we might intervene in these patterns.”

Grateful to you for intervening, B., and sharing with the rest of us.