Hey Friends,

Welcome to everyone who joined my mailing list this week.

It's probably a good idea to briefly summarise what I'm hoping to achieve by bringing together such a fantastic bunch of people. Well, I believe we are at a crossroads. The Internet has brought about some fantastic innovations, however, in some cases technologies that were meant to liberate us have in fact exploited areas of human psychology, leaving many of us addicted to our phones, endlessly checking social media feeds, and comparing ourselves against the carefully curated digital versions of the people we follow.

In addition, privacy is severely under threat as tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder. The profits of their social media platforms depending not only on predicting our behaviour but in some cases modifying it too (read my book review about the Cambridge Analytica scandal).

The good news is we can still turn this ship around. Technology is not evil, and with the right strategy can be used to enrich our lives. Together, we can figure out how to reap the benefits and rewards of the technologies we use, but in a safe and healthy manner.

Over the coming weeks and months I would like to share the new philosophy I'm currently working on called 'Digital Balance'. This is a work in progress, but will essentially try to describe how we can optimise our use of technology to ensure that all our digital interactions are safe, secure and support the values and ambitions we hold.

My aim is to provide useful advice about how to best use passwords, social media, email, messaging, web browsers (and lot's more), so that everyone can achieve the balance that is right for them. However, by sharing these ideas with you first, and listening to your thoughts and opinions, I hope to refine the philosophy, strategies and tips before I share them on my blog and with the rest of the world.

This week I will start with passwords. I would like to find out how we all currently use passwords so that I can identify common practices and provide advice and strategies anyone can adopt depending on their individual risk, skill level, and time availability. Rest assured I will not be collecting any personal data and in most cases it will simply be an anonymous survey which will take just a minute or two to complete.

The more people I can get to fill in these short surveys the more accurate advice I will be able to provide. Therefore, this week's challenge is to get 5 friends/family to sign up to this mailing list !

Once again, thanks for being on board - this is going to be an interesting and hopefully worthwhile journey !

Have a great week!

PS: It's great to see so many new subscribers this week. If we have never met before, why not reply to this email and introduce yourself.

PPS: Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here

Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Podcast A really informative episode of Michael Bazzell's podcast which has given me some good ideas for topics I would like to share with subscribers of this mailing list. The podcast can often be very technical so my aim is to simplify some of his ideas and help us all make better choices with our technology.

\\ Two Article It was interesting to read that Israel has let domestic intelligence services access mobile phone data of those diagnosed with coronavirus. It opens up an interesting debate about the right balance between privacy and public health.

\\ Three YouTube An interesting video about the benefits of taking 'deep breaks' from our technology to refocus and recharge.

\\ Four Article For anyone who kindly completed any of my PhD surveys, you may be interested to hear a man has been charged for the Satori IoT Botnet

Favourite Quote

Habits aren't a finish line to be crossed they are a lifestyle to be lived - James Clear: Atomic Habits

I like this quote because it is a reminder that when we are trying to implement changes in our lives the best results come from slow sustained efforts, rather than quick fixes.

My articles this week

Book Review: MindF*ck Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World

Previous emails

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