BOONE—David Levy will explore the connection between today’s digital environment and mindfulness during an Oct. 21 talk at Appalachian State University. His presentation, titled “Mindful Tech: Finding Balance in an Age of Overload and Distraction,” will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Parkway Ballroom. Levy’s talk is part of Belk Library and Information Commons’ Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Lecture Series.

Levy is a professor in the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle. For more than 15 years, he was a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, exploring the transition from paper and print to digital media. At the University of Washington since 2000, he focuses on bringing mindfulness training and other contemplative practices to address problems of information overload and acceleration.

“Today’s digital devices and apps are both powerful and powerfully distracting. Indeed, it has become increasingly clear that they can serve both as instruments of learning and connection, on the one hand, and of distraction and disconnection, on the other,” he wrote of his talk. “The challenge we face is to use them to their best advantage, and to ours, and to understand when to use them and when to abstain from them.”

Work by Levy and his colleagues has explored how meditation might affect multitasking in a realistic work setting. He has developed methods and exercises to help students, as well as faculty, staff and adult professionals, investigate and improve their relationship with their devices and apps and discover a more sustainable approach to living and learning.

His new book, “Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives,” will be published in January 2016 by Yale University Press.

He also is the co-author of the paper “The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation Training on Multitasking in a High-Stress Information Environment,” published in the May 2012 edition of Proceedings of Graphics Interface.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

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