Digital detox expert and tech therapist Tanya Goodin is on a mission to help us have a healthier relationship with our electronics. Here, she collects hours of conversations to form a fascinating compendium of everyday problems we all struggle with, plus solutions to stop them taking over lives.
We use technology to connect, work, learn, get fit, shop and even date. But who is really in control: you, the platform or your device? This book gives the reader back their power.
My Brain Has Too Many Tabs Open explores how bad digital habits and experiences are damaging lives, and what we can do about it. Tanya Goodin is a digital detox campaigner and agony aunt sounding the alarm on digital lifestyle issues we wrestle with daily. Through recollections of client consultations and expert analysis, Goodin breaks down what is happening and why, and tells us how we can fix it. Whether you are dealing with a partner who is mindlessly scrolling rather than listening to you (phubbing), a parent who floods social media with photographs of their children without consent (sharenting), or are one of the 66% who suffer from compulsive phone use (nomophobia), you will learn how to recognise and label dependent behaviours - both of yourself and others - and find actionable answers in this book.
Complete with diagnostic guides to tell-tale signs and a manifesto for improved digital citizenship, the book investigates life, love and work versus tech. With each of the 24 scenarios included, Goodin offers the conversation-starting vocabulary we so desperately need to get to grips with our brave new digital world, and exist in it happily. Explore unforgettable facts, familiar lived experiences and carefully crafted solutions with this habit-improving bible. Among the scenarios included are:
Doomscrolling: endlessly consuming doom-and-gloom news, a habit perpetuated by attention-seeking algorithms that triggers anxiety and depression
Comparison Culture: 52% of teens feel less confident because of feeling inadequate when comparing their social media profiles with other people's
Vampire Shoppers: dead-of-night, sleepless shoppers who spend a third more than daytime shoppers, and range from nocturnal gamers to exhausted parents
Digital Legacies: before the end of the century there could be 4.9 billion deceased internet users, yet only 7% of us want our online profiles maintained after death
Cybercondria: Dr Google is causing a wave of misdiagnoses from anxious searchers, with 25% of British women buying false miracle cures as a next step
Clicktivism: also known as slacktivism, is virtue signalling through performative alignment with online causes, but can it ever amount to meaningful change?
