English professor publishes a book this fall

A new book by assistant English professor Alan Reid, "The Smartphone Paradox: Our Ruinous Dependency in the Device Age," was published in Septemer by Palgrace Macmillian.

Reid's background in instructional design and technology led him to write this book about the use of mobile technologies and how they influence our day-to-day behaviors and thoughts. The book stems from Reid's scholarly article, published in 2016, on the connection bewteen smartphone gratification and narcissim. The way technology facilitates and distracts people from learning is an interest of Reid's, but he drew most of his inspiration through watching his nine-year-old daughter grow up with technology and wondering about the tradeoffs made when investing attention through a screen. This book is described by Reid as "Broader than a pedagogical perspective on smartphones in the classroom," and "... primarily a conversation about the non-neutrality of technology." 

The synopsis of the book is as follows:

"The Smartphone Paradox is a critical examination of our everyday mobile technologies and the effects that they have on our thoughts and behaviors. Alan J. Reid presents a comprehensive view of smartphones: the research behind the uses and gratifications of smartphones, the obstacles they present, the opportunities they afford, and how everyone can achieve a healthy, technological balance. It includes interviews with scholars, medical experts, and smartphone users from a variety of backgrounds, and translates scholarly research into a conversational tone, making it easy to understand a synthesis of key findings and conclusions from a heavily-researched domain. All in all, through the lens of smartphone dependency, the book makes the argument for digital mindfulness in a device age that threatens our privacy, sociability, attention, and cognitive abilities."