Digital Divestment Roundtable: ‘Making a Plan’ Hands-On Workshop

When: June 24, 10am PT / 11am MT / 12noon CT / 1pm ET
Where: On zoom

The first step in the 5D method (created by Appstinence, a student group at Harvard University) is PREPARE, followed by decrease, deactivate, delete, downgrade, and depart. This will be the focus for the second session of the Digital Divestment Roundtable, as we learn how to protect ourselves from the surveillance apparatus (practical tips for how to deactivate AI on platforms, turn off tracking features, etc) and start to create a personal plan for how we would like to engage with digital ecosystems.

It was clear from our inaugural session that our needs and commitments are diverse, but the one refrain that kept echoing was the fear of losing community and opportunities. We will address this question upfront in this session, and engage in exploration of practical alternatives to channel our fears into action.

The Digital Divestment Roundtable is open to the entire IA community, and is hosted by PAGE Fellow Leah Friedman, and IA Communications Director Anuj Vaidya. It invites us to engage in the following questions: what impacts do we see emerging from our digital dependence in contemporary times? How has this integration into all aspects of our communications and education changed our work and increased our reliance? How has it impacted our environment, privacy/sovereignty, creativity/imagination? And where do we go from here?