Left to Our Own Devices

How new technology has changed the way we think, and what we can do about it

Jaime Winston | Marketing & Communications

Luke Fernandez recalls sliding the large piece of sound insulation paneling in front of his dorm room door to keep out the racket from the hallway.

“Back in those days, hi-fi stereos were quite popular. When I was trying to study, they caused me a great deal of distress and annoyance,” said

Fernandez, Weber State computer science professor, who was writing his thesis on Friedrich Nietzsche and the politics of nihilism as a senior at Amherst College at the time.

His spouse, Weber State history professor Susan Matt, refers to Fernandez’s Billboard top 40-proof dorm room as his “chamber of solitude.”

Unfortunately for today’s students, creating their “chambers” is a bit trickier. No matter how well they block out the ruckus right outside their doors, they have smartphones, laptops, tablets and other devices that keep them connected to family, friends and the rest of the world at all times.

“These devices are incredibly alluring, and the technology companies behind them have every business incentive to try to distract you,” Fernandez said. “They make money off of harvesting your attention.”

“Americans are much less tolerant of being alone and expericing solitude than they once were, much less tolerant of boredom, kind of demanding constant stimulation.” — Susan Matt, history professor

Along with distracting students from homework, the devices present a challenge in Weber State classrooms as well. “These devices can sometimes work at odds with the goals we’re trying to get through in the classroom,” Fernandez said. “We’re also trying to channel the attention of the students.”

As students begin using more technology in the classroom, the faculty is split over whether devices are degrading or enriching learning. “Just the other day, I was telling my students to pull out their phones and Google something if they didn’t know it,” said Scott Rogers, Weber State associate professor of English. “They said, ‘We’ve been taught our whole lives not to use our phones in the classroom,’ and I’m like, ‘But I’m telling you, you have the whole internet in your hand. Don’t ignore that.’”

The debate over technology’s usefulness or invasiveness goes back much further than the iPhone’s debut in 2007 — or even Fernandez’s blocked-off room during the 1986–87 academic year. Matt and Fernandez researched 19th and early 20th century diaries, letters and memoires regarding technology for a book they are writing about technology’s influence on American emotions throughout history. “We also read the personal papers of everyday people to see how they were thinking about the telegraph, how they were thinking about the radio,” Matt said.

A lot like Mr. Creosote, a Monty Python character who ate so much food that he exploded after adding one wafer-thin mint to his meal, Matt and Fernandez found that 19th century Americans were concerned about overloading on information. “A lot of American doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists believed the human mind was limited and could only absorb so much,” Matt said. “Nineteenth century Americans thought, ‘The telegraph, the telephone, the radio — it’s just overwhelming us. Our brains aren’t equipped to handle everything that they’re bringing in.’”

Along with researching the past, Matt and Fernandez met with 50 people from 11 states and Washington, D.C., to get their thoughts on today’s technology. Interviewees ranged in age from 18 to 80 and included people from all walks of life — truckers, nurse’s aides, lawyers, software engineers, entrepreneurs and Weber State students.

They found that Americans today feel differently about taking in information than their ancestors, relating more to black holes than Mr. Creosote. “We think that we can take it all in, that our brains will infinitely expand,” Matt said.

The research also uncovers new insights on emotions surrounding new technology, revealing what Matt and Fernandez call “the new American self.” 

New America

Along with wanting as much information as possible, Matt and Fernandez say that Americans are more concerned about loneliness, boredom, anger and narcissism.

“Americans are much less tolerant of being alone and experiencing solitude than they once were, much less tolerant of boredom, kind of demanding constant stimulation,” said Matt, adding that solitude was often seen as virtuous to people in the 19th century.

As we look down at our phones to avoid boredom, they become tools for airing frustrations. “The internet gives us this way to express anger, and we don’t feel the consequences of it,” Matt said. “You don’t need to be ashamed because no one can actually see you; you can hide behind a screen name. In some ways people have been given more license to feel anger.”

The couple’s research also reveals more Americans are concerned with narcissism in the digital age than they were 100 years ago. It’s not surprising, given the instant gratification that comes with more likes and friends on social media.

“We can't just leave it up to Silicon Valley to create these things. We have to participate as consumers in how they’re designed.” — Luke Fernandez, computer science professor

However, not all of the findings show negative feelings surrounding technology. “One thing that came out in a lot of interviews is people have some real disconnects with their technologies, but they’re also talking about ways it enhances social life and the acts of generosity that people do,” Matt said.

During the 2013–14 fiscal year, 3.05 percent of donations to Weber State were processed online. The percentage of online donations has gone up each year since, reaching 8.24 percent during the 2016–17 fiscal year. The university has processed a total of 3,359 online donations over that period of time.

“People in all locales can make a donation online. Donations can be made via smartphones. There are so many online giving platforms that can be used by nonprofits and onetime grassroots fundraising,” said Kelly Stackaruk, senior development director for Weber State’s College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology (EAST). “We are able to create custom URLs that, with one click, will take our donors to the exact account they want to support.”

Additionally, if we really don’t like how our devices make us feel, Fernandez reminds us that we have a say in the technologies that help form American culture. “These technologies are not just tools that we use. They’re also reshaping fundamentally what we are as human beings because they can lead us in good or bad directions,” he said. “We can’t just leave it up to Silicon Valley to create these things. We have to participate as consumers in how they’re designed.”

Students studying technology in EAST have a more direct say in how technology shapes America’s culture. The national Women Tech Council recently recognized WSU computer science major Tammy Platero at the Women Tech Awards for her work in the community. Platero, who is also a program coordinator for WSU’s Center for Technology Outreach, has helped introduce young girls and underrepresented students to STEM fields, organize the FIRST® LEGO® League for over 3,000 children across Utah and lead an all-girls welding camp last summer.

“People who didn’t have an opportunity for education now have that through the internet,” said Platero, mentioning programs like WebEx and Coursera. 

While Platero acknowledges potential worries over loneliness and narcissism, she says you’ll also find something else in the digital age: empathy. “Not only do I get to see news articles from around the world, I can really listen to someone’s personal experience about what’s going on in their country, and it’s all through the internet.”

After she graduates in 2019, Platero says she’s not sure what she will do as a career, but it will involve both technology and community service.

Phones Away, Eyes Up

In 2012, Fernandez, Matt and Rogers co-taught the course “Are Machines Making Us Stupid?” focusing on the ways digital technology alters students’ lives.

Students were asked to analyze their technology use while completing assignments.

“I have been distracted by everything else I’m capable of doing on a ‘screen’ while writing an essay,” wrote one student, describing her experience while writing an essay for the class (her account appears in her professors’ summary of the class in EDUCAUSE Review). “I routinely stop writing and check my email, or I am at the disposal of any other wandering thought I get while writing essays. I think I even started to shop online while I was in the middle of this essay …”

Another student confessed that, while working on a writing assignment, “I’ve sent five texts to my girlfriend and received five replies in kind, and I consider myself fairly conservative in my plugged-in-ness.”

The responses weren’t surprising. “We’re a species that likes feedback. We want immediate feedback, and the phones give it to us,” Rogers said. “There’s a reason you love the notifications on your phone — that you don’t just turn them all off. There’s a reason you want to read a breaking news alert or a text message or email or whatever has come through on your phone.”

Thirty-one percent of the class had families, and 60 percent worked more than 20 hours per week, making disconnecting from their devices impractical. As the class started, 60 percent agreed that modern technology was disruptive for them. However, after the professors assigned reading assignments on how the internet affects the way people think, students said they started to learn where the dangers lurked and could better avoid being distracted by technology.

“People who didn't have an opportunity for education now have that through the internet.” — Tammy Platero, WSU computer science student

“I recognize more how my life has been shaped by technology,” wrote one student, whose response is also in the EDUCAUSE article. “I like recognizing that I am being shaped by it but that I have the power to change it if I want.”

It’s this sense of mindfulness Matt and Fernandez want students to have regarding their technology. “We all think of our emotions as hardwired into us, and we have no choice about the emotional patterns we display, but emotions are partially cultural, and we have a role in shaping that culture,” Matt said.

“In the end, we’re not completely pessimistic.” Fernandez and Matt have taught classes based on their findings from the 2012 course for Weber State’s Honors Program and the University of Tu¨bingen in Germany. They plan to publish their book, tentatively titled Bored, Lonely and Stupid: How Americans Have Felt About Technology from the Telegraph to Twitter, from Harvard University Press in the fall of 2018.