New book argues for a more empowered stance towards technology

A University of Wolverhampton Honorary Professor has recently published a new book that tackles how our attitudes and behaviours around technology shape our lives and relationships.

Elliott and Thompson has published the new book, Reboot: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World, by Elaine Kasket, Honorary Professor of Psychology in the University’s Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing. 

Elaine said: “Technology is the mediator and middleman in nearly every relationship we have in modern life. Interwoven within the bonds between parents and kids, teachers and pupils, romantic partners, employees and bosses, midlife adults and aging parents, we are constantly making decisions about data and devices that affect not only us, but other people – often our nearest and dearest.  

“Yet we speak as though technology is an active, powerful, unstoppable force, and we are the victims. ‘What is this technology doing to us?’ people ask. But are we as helpless as we assume? 

“I’m hoping that the reader will come away curious about why we use technology the way we do and be clear about how those choices are really working out; and with the tools to align our technology use with the kind of life and relationships you want. When you recognise and reclaim the extent of your power, what might become possible?” 

In REBOOT, psychologist Elaine Kasket disrupts common assumptions and fears about technology’s impact on us, unfolding a different, more empowered, more individual way of responding to technology and its challenges at every age and stage.  

For each phase of life, she explores how and why you may be pulled into using and thinking about technology in particular ways, even when those ways don’t ultimately serve you or your relationships.  

Elaine is a psychologist, speaker and writer, and an expert on the modern challenges and opportunities brought about by technology. Speaking about life, relationships, privacy and the power of big tech, Elaine appears frequently in the mainstream media as well as on podcasts and at major festivals.  

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She also serves as an Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton. All the Ghosts in the Machine: The Digital Afterlife of your Personal Data (2019) was her first book for a general audience.   

Anyone interested in courses being offered in the Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing should check out the website or register for one of our forthcoming Open Days.      

ENDS