Wish I Were Here
Boredom and the Interface

I heard an incredibly insightful podcast interview with the author (on CBC Spark) on the nature of boredom and the endless scroll so I was really looking forward to the book. The book was largely disappointing. It contained the same insights I heard in 15 minutes, but included hundreds of pages of m......more

I don't regret by any means the reading of this book, but I do retract an assessment I made mid-way through, something to the effect that Kingwell provides a more policy-relevant set of observations about the Current (socioeconomic) Arrangement, than does Yuval Noah Harari in 21 Lessons for the 21st......more

So the problem is that the modern form of boredom is when the interface of a technology replaces the actual desire to use that technology for it's desired end: searching for a show on Netflix becomes the primary activity of using Netflix. We can construe this as harmful because our desire to use the......more

part one is where the real philosophy lies, though it is largely summative. the rest is a series of meandering detours through the tech-inflected culture issues of today, justified by kingwell's invocation of adorno's politicization of boredom. clearly intended for a mass audience, the book I think......more

I actually don’t fit in with the mainstream culture because I still read widely, deeply and critically. It is difficult in today’s culture to have conversations with people when they don’t know anything outside of the posts on their social media feeds. I rarely meet anyone these days who has read an......more