How To Do Nothing

I would like to recommend Jenny Odell’s How To Do Nothing. Odell is a digital artist, and her book explores protecting and directing attention under the pressure of attention commodification in modern communication. It’s unique in that it isn’t a rejection of things like social media or digital connectivity, but rather a critical examination of the digital and analog world and exploration of how to engage with both in a manner that best serves you as an individual. She does a fantastic job of weaving together multiple types of knowledge, opinions of prominent public intellectuals, and multiple facets of the history of “unplugging,” pulling out lessons learned in those different times by different people that can continue to serve us today and help us create the digital spaces, relationship to tech, and community we can genuinely thrive in. —Janna Avon, digital initiatives librarian