Spring 2017 Distinguished Lecture Series - Living in Media: Psychological Implications of the Fragmentation and Mediatization of Life

Distinguished Lecture provided by Dr. Byron Reeves (Paul C. Edwards Professor of Communication, Stanford University) Much of life is now experienced digitally on just a few ubiquitous devices, via interfaces that enable lightning fast switches between radically different content, and with affordances that make it simple for anyone – individuals, social groups, companies, governments – to aggregate, archive, search, analyze, and publish everything. One device can be used for email and texting, shopping and finances, business and social relationships, work spreadsheets and writing, entertainment TV, news, movies and games, and monitoring personal information about health, exercise, energy, appliances, driving and even home irrigation. The variety of human experiences available digitally will continue to grow as more and more items – from refrigerators to shoes to food to car parts – get their own IP addresses that link them to the so-called “internet of things.” We will explore several different psychological implications of living in media including the fragmentation of experience, quick task switching between different experiences, and new interdependency between domains of life typically viewed as separate experiences.