Ruminations on our relationship with technology

Welcome one and all! My name is Christopher Cocchiarella, and this is my hobby site: MINDFUL TECHNICS, a repository of ruminations about our relationship with technology. Here, you’ll find a growing collection of short articles put together by me and occasional guest contributors, which we created for fellow professionals, educators, and inquisitive laypeople or students. In these writings, we touch upon technology education, tech ethics, and related topics.

To explore we mean by technology education or tech ethics, read more below. Also, feel free to read more ABOUT this site, or CONTACT me for inquiries.

What do we mean by “technology education” and “tech ethics”?

As educator Neil Postman observed in his book The End of Education, technology education doesn’t mean learning how to use a particular technology. (That’s technology training.) Rather, it’s understanding how to use media and machines more mindfully or intelligently in our daily lives.

Whether we realize it or not, technology affects how we think, interact, and live every day. That’s because technology isn’t just a thing we happen to use. It’s also a relationship we have to manage. Exploring our relationship with technology is what’s meant by technology education.

Why care about technology education? Because looking at our relationship with technology more closely can help us use our tools, machines, and media more consciously and deliberately. And that’s where tech ethics comes in. If we want to lead more fulfilling lives, we have to think about how to use our tools, machines, and media in ethical and humane ways.

Topics on our relationship with technology

Check out the LATEST ARTICLES on our relationship with technology, or browse by any of the following topics:

EDUCATIONAL TOPICS look at how technologies shape the way we think. Subtopics include cognitive science, functional literacy, and media ecology.
PROFESSIONAL TOPICS look at how media and machines affect the way we work and communicate. Subtopics include business technology, technical communication, and user experience.
TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE articles look at how technological changes influence our way of life, including our culture’s mythology, art, and philosophical values.
RECOMMENDED READING suggests books with valuable insight into our relationship with technology, including in the genres of fiction or science fiction, scientific writing, and social commentary.

I also occasionally comment on current events related to these topics. Feel free to follow the conversation—see the ‘Follow this site’ box.

What does “mindful technics” mean?

A note on the domain name: What do the words mindful and technics mean?

Make sure you control your tech, so it doesn’t control you! (Artwork by Lee Emberley)

The first word alludes to the Buddhist concept of mindfulness. Being mindful means being conscious of how the mind is affected by things in the world, including technology.
The second word is basically the terms technology and technique combined. Thus, technics means the technique of using a particular technology.

Together, these words signify how to use technology more mindfully or intelligently, as opposed to mindlessly or compulsively. In essence, mindful technics is about making sure we’re the ones controlling technology, and not vice versa.