Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies

Our society has a technology problem. Many want to disconnect from screens but can't help themselves. These days we spend more time online than ever. Some turn to self-help-measures to limit their usage, yet repeatedly fail, while parents feel particularly powerless to help their children. Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies shows us a way out. Rather than blaming users, the book shatters the illusion that we autonomously choose how to spend our time online. It shifts the moral responsibility and accountability for solutions to corporations. Drawing lessons from the tobacco and food industries, the book demonstrates why government regulation is necessary to curb technology addiction. It describes a grassroots movement already in action across courts and legislative halls. Groundbreaking and urgent, Unwired provides a blueprint to develop this movement for change, to one that will allow us to finally gain control.

Table of Contents:
Prologue; Part I. The Price of the Illusion of Control; 1. Becoming the Choice-Makers; 2. Addiction, Our Children, Our Bonds; 3. Invisible Chains; Part II. Who Are the Choice Makers? 4. Clouds of Smoke; 5. The Food Wars; 6. The Privacy Phoenix; 7. Lessons from Battling Titans; Part III. Fighting for Choice; 8. The Art of Redesign; 9. The Tools of Awareness; 10. The Ground is Burning; 11. The Achilles Heel; 12. Acupuncture for Change; Epilogue.

About the Author :
Gaia Bernstein is the Technology, Privacy and Policy Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Institute for Privacy Protection, and Co-Director of the Gibbons Institute of Law Science and Technology at Seton Hall University School of Law. She writes, teaches, and lectures on subjects at the intersections of law, technology, health, and privacy. Professor Bernstein developed a nationally recognized outreach program on technology overuse for school-aged children and their parents. She is also a mother of three children who grew up in the era of smartphones, screens, and social media.

Review :
'Gaia Bernstein's Unwired offers a compelling roadmap for tackling one of our most pressing problems: the irresistible pull of technology. Over the course of our lives, we and our children will spend between fifteen and twenty years glued to our screens. As Bernstein shows, though, there are regulatory remedies at hand to help us retain our time and our wellbeing.' Adam Alter, Professor of Marketing and Psychology, NYU Stern School of Business, author of Irresistible and Drunk Tank Pink 'In this important and powerful book, Gaia Bernstein shows us how to reclaim our power and our humanity from the Big Tech cartel that have intentionally addicted us to their devices and platforms.' Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D., Author of 'Glow Kids' and 'Digital Madness", former Clinical Professor, Stony Brook Medicine 'Unwired is a compelling, accessible, and vital intervention into the overuse of technology. Instead of offering overly simplistic self-help strategies that are doomed to fail, Professor Bernstein rightly targets the manipulative design of technologies and the need for us to work together to hold the tech industry accountable. This book vividly blends personal stories with the latest research and lessons from history to paint a clear picture of our struggle with screens and what it's going to take to improve things. Everyone should read this book.' Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law at Boston University and author of Privacy's Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies 'Inviting and intelligent, Gaia Bernstein's extraordinary book masterfully combines honest personal reflections about her experiences with the creep of digital tech together with a sobering academic account of our collective public struggles to deal with technologies designed to addict, manipulate, and even control our behavior. Throughout, Bernstein maintains a can-do attitude that inspires change.' Brett Frischmann, The Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business and Economics, Villanova University School of Law 'Unwired is a powerful rejoinder to voices that would seek to minimize the threat technological manipulation poses to human freedom. But Gaia Bernstein goes beyond a mere accounting of the harms and proposes systemic changes that can help us take back control. Comprehensive in its scope and clear-eyed in its analysis, Unwired is an indispensable guide to the landscape of digital technology reform. Anyone who cares about the future of technology should read this book.' James Williams, author of Stand Out of Our Light 'This trenchant clarion call rings loud and clear.' Publishers Weekly 'Mixing expertise and passion, the author sets an agenda to rein in the tech behemoths that have run rampant for years.' Kirkus Reviews 'Bernstein is shrewd about the political maneuvers and public relations options available to industries challenged for doing harm to the general welfare. At the same time, she shows that imposing some control or countermeasures … has been possible in the past, and might be in the future.' Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed 'Unwired exists to be used: an agenda for social change through legal action. It is a knife, not a brush. But it'll be of much more than academic value to those of us whose parenting years were overshadowed by feelings of guilt, frustration and anxiety, as we fought our hopeless battles, and lost our children to TikTok and Fortnite.' Simon Ings, New Statesman 'Bernstein … doubts that addicted users … can will themselves out of their habits. Instead, she argues, regulatory intervention of the supplying corporations will be necessary.' Harvard Magazine, Off the Shelf