University Press Week is celebrated each year to highlight the unique part that the University Press plays in the publishing landscape. The theme of this year’s event is #SpeakUp. It aims to give a voice to scholarship and ideas that shape the world, amplify thought-provoking concepts, new points of view, and ideas that advocate for social change. These sentiments are at the heart of our mission.  

“Our role as a leading university press goes beyond publishing; it’s about working together to create transformative experiences for learners, researchers, authors, and partners worldwide – helping to foster debate and further our knowledge of the world we live in.”

Mandy Hill, Managing Director, Cambridge University Press.

This year we were delighted to feature Gaia Bernstein’s compelling book, Unwired, Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies,  in the Association of University Press’ annual gallery for University Press Week. We joined Bernstein for a Q&A to find out more about her  

Tell us a little about your book and what inspired you to write it? 

Gaia Bernstein: In Unwired I combine the human and the legal to offer a different solution to technology addiction. I started thinking about this in 2015, when I noticed that I was constantly looking at screens, wherever I was, on a commuter train or standing in line in a coffee shop. I saw kids who used to play with each other, and now sat at birthday parties staring at their phones. I then started an outreach program and lectured to parents thinking we could solve the problem ourselves by using self-help measures. But I realized this approach did not and could not work. Through studying the battles of the past against I tobacco and junk food, I learnt that only collective action against the tech industry, which is addicting its users, could offer a real way out.   

How do Unwired‘s themes advocate for social change? 

Gaia Bernstein: These days we are very focused on personal and home battles, trying to limit our own and our families’ time on screen. But these attempts repeatedly fail, and when they do we blame ourselves or our kids or our partners. Unwired emphasizes that technology overuse is not an individual problem, and neither is its solution. It urges the reader to turn to collective action. To do so it provides a roadmap of how we can move forward by exerting pressure on technology companies to redesign their technologies. Additionally, inspired by the emergence of smokeless bars and restaurants, Unwired proposes changing how and when we use technology in spaces, like schools. 

How do you think the illusion of control around technology affects people’s perception of their own digital consumption? 

Gaia Bernstein: Technology companies design their products in manipulative ways that make them addictive and ensure that we stay on for as long as possible. These designs are powerful and invisible. We think we are in control because we make small decisions, like picking up the phone when we wake up to check the weather. But we do not make the real decision, which is how much time we end up spending online. We do not autonomously choose to spend the next half hour still in bed scrolling on our phone. Technology companies intensify the illusion of control by promoting the idea that we are the choosers and are responsible for our excessive screen time in order to shift responsibility away from their own actions.

Want to know more? Unwired Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, is out now to buy in hard copy. Or, watch the extended interview with the author below.