Is 'Engagement' in the context of technology good or bad?

[aschrijver]

Hi @magdalen,

I moved your topic here, so as not to discuss in the Introductions thread.

@magdalen

the word “engagement” and the idea that we want to “engage” each other all the time is part of the problem. i was just kind of riffing on that.

engagement = spend a bunch of time on your computer or phone, with content we are convinced is necessary!

I am interested in this. Especially the second sentence: Isn’t this how your interpretation of ‘engagement’ has become, because of how you see it applied (as a goal of advertisers and marketers to keep users’ attention for as long as possible).

We have defined a revised vision and mission statement, and in the breakdown model we have the Freedom pyramid, that starts - on the first level - with ‘Engagement’.

I am no native English speaker, but I interpret this as the willingness to freely engage with other people, where the technology is no longer placing barriers there. Thus it is the kind of engagement that precondition to e.g. a flow of creativity, and other things that need mindful, undistracted attention, which you do, because you have the freedom to them.