GOOD DIGITAL CITIZEN

An author takes an ideological approach to the overwhelming ubiquity of the digital world.

As Kastell points out at the start of her nonfiction book, nearly five billion people on the planet are fully engaged in the digital age, “heads buried in their smartphones, iPads, and laptops, which mediate most of our conversations and intimate connections,” completely hooked into the “Internet of Things.” “We now recognize,” the author writes, “that the overwhelm we feel about overload, unsavory digital exchanges, and online negativity are taxing everyone.” Her plan for dealing with this feeling is drawn from the ancient world, specifically the principles of Stoicism: accept events as they occur, control your reactions to things, continuously take stock of what’s really important in life—a totality she refers to as “Stoic scrolling.” “You are not in control of the world around you,” she reminds her readers, “but you can control how you let it affect you—or not—and how you respond, if at all.” This philosophical angle runs throughout the book, with Kastell touching on figures like Kierkegaard and the literary theorist René Girard and drawing from their writings to formulate strategies for handling our “responsibility to be rightful and truthful in how we use technology.” This approach is intriguing, and the author deepens it as she goes along, bringing in a wide variety of technology-related subjects, always with an upbeat, optimistic attitude. Even on touchstone controversies like artificial intelligence, she’s more hopeful about the possibilities than anxious about the dangers: “We are synergizing with our technology. It is not replacing us. It is empowering us.” This positivity, plus the much-needed call for balanced self-control, makes all this a refreshing take on the digital miasma that fills the modern world.

A concisely argued, worthwhile call to adopt Stoicism in key relationships with the online world.