Jenny Odell

CM 170: Nicholas Carr on What the Internet Does to Our Brains

Is the onslaught of online information eroding our brain’s ability to think deeply and creatively? In 2008, Nicholas Carr, asked the provocative question, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Two years later, he delved more deeply into this topic in his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  Writing at…

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CM 155: Jenny Odell on How to Do Nothing

As we increasingly equate human worth with productivity, what does it mean to do nothing? That’s the question Jenny Odell explores in her book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. In it, she deftly draws on the work of artists, laborers, and writers, past and present, to discuss how others have grappled with…

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