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“If left to our own devices, we’ll always be on them.” - David Ryan Polgar

About: David Ryan Polgar- Digital Lifestyle Expert & Tech Ethicist

Overview: David Ryan Polgar shares his tactics on how we can become more balanced in our technology-overwhelmed world.

DavidRyanPolgar
David Ryan Polgar

 

Highlights:

What is a Digital Lifestyle Expert & Tech Ethicist: A tech ethicist looks at tech use from an ethical, legal, sociological, and emotional framework. It came about because a few years ago he kept reading articles about the major impact of social media and how it’s affecting us. David a former college professor, attorney, and now a writer and public speaker decided to use all those skills to help people achieve balance with their technology.

Who Hires David: Corporations and startups hire David to analyze their tech companies from every angle. For example, he is currently helping a startup that focuses on parental controls called CoPilot Family.

Trends in the Tech World for Entrepreneurs: David feels we are becoming a lot more nuanced about how we discuss technology. The startup community is all about efficiency and productivity. Tech balance is all about being creative, and becoming a critical thinker. People care more about your ideas, and not so much how many hours you put in. Sort of like the work smart, not hard mentality.

How to have Tech Balance: You cannot rely solely on willpower to make a change in your life. You need to actually physically say that you’re not going to be available for a couple of hours, or go on a hike without your phone. David suggests replacing your phone alarm for an old school alarm clock.

Side Effects from Our Technology: Some physical problems are eye problems, wrist strains, etc. David shares that our phones are interrupting creativity, critical thinking, and conversation. We need to step back and change our situation. It’s addicting to have a smart phone, and to hear that ding and feel loved. However, technology is neither good or bad, it’s all in how we use it. It has the potential to be very good, but it also has the potential to be very bad if we allow it to be.

What is Mental Obesity: It is the phrase David likes to use when our brains feel full. It’s easy to know when you gain physical weight, but it’s not so easy to know when your brain is “overweight.” We start feeling so overwhelmed because of the constant pressure we feel from our technology. The way David sees things developing over the next 5 years is having some type of mental food plate to help us keep a balance. Our problem isn’t the amount of information that’s out there, it’s actually retaining that information in our minds. Deeper level thinking requires reflection, but how often do we reflect?

Suggestions from David: He shares with us that it’s important to take time each day to be completely unplugged where you can reflect, and give your mind a technology break. You’re never going to be under-tech, so don’t feel like you’re missing out when you take that time each day.

Future for David: It’s going to be 2-part. The first is seeing a massive growth with CoPilot Family. Also, David, is going to be doing a lot more speaking gigs about tech balance, and making that scalable. He’s thinking about doing a speaking series, doing more TV gigs, and possibly doing things overseas. He is also currently developing a book.

Overall Goal of Being a Digital Lifestyle Expert: It’s about raising awareness for the need of having tech balance, and offering solutions to help people with this.

Take Away: You cannot be an Outlier if you’re over plugged. You cannot be an Outlier if you’re constantly multi-tasking. You become an Outlier when you’re a creative thinker- when you’re digesting the material. It’s good to be bored every once and awhile to allow the mental space.

Connect With David:

Personal Website | Company Website |@TechEthicist |@CopilotFamily

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Direct download: David_Ryan_Polgar.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:09am MDT