Hello and welcome to Episode Forty of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I’m your host, Hannah!
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The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader’s Advisory!
The Reader’s Advisory for Episode Forty is Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. If you like Ninefox Gambit you should also check out: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson, and The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis.
My personal favorite Goodreads list Ninefox Gambit is on is Space Operas About Rebelling Against Imperial Powers That Involve Body Snatching and Are Gay.
Happy Reading Everyone
Today’s Library Tidbit is on technology anxiety!
You may have noticed that we do a lot of programs at the library geared toward learning a new device, gadget, database, or software. The reason we do this is to provide a relaxed, small group environment with a knowledgeable staff member who is able to give some closer attention and answer questions as they come up. We think this is important because many many people today have technology anxiety.
There are actually two different types of technology anxiety. There is the anxiety that is an effect of both what we are seeing on our screens combined with a need to constantly be checking our screens, and there is the anxiety someone feels when they attempt to use technology they are unfamiliar with. Today’s tidbit is on the second type of technology anxiety. We may discuss how technology can add anxiety and stress to our lives at a future date.
Technology anxiety is not a new concept. Back in 1987, Larry Rosen, Deborah Sears, and Michelle Weil wrote a paper titled Computerphobia in the journal Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, that looked into the, then just called, computer anxiety of university students. Now that we have more technology than just computers available for personal use the term has evolved, but the general concept has stayed the same.
I feel like most people are familiar with what anxiety is and feels like. However, just to make sure that we all understand what the type of anxiety I am talking about in this tidbit. Anxiety is intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear. Technology anxiety is when a person has intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about technology. This can manifest itself in different ways, but the most common ways this anxiety presents is with a raised heart rate, change in body temperature, chest pain, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, difficulty thinking and forming thoughts, difficulty in making short term memories. Some people will have more of the physical symptoms and some people will have more of the cognitive symptoms.
Either way as you can guess the effects of technology anxiety do not help people learn how to use technology, which is one of the way people can lessen their technology anxiety.
If you have ever been handed a new device or logged into a computer and not recognized what was on the screen and gotten immediately worried and afraid? You’ve experienced technology anxiety. Everyone has this to some degree, but if the anxiety is so large that you cannot learn new technology on your own you should come in and take one of our classes!
There’s no reason to feel ashamed if you experience technology anxiety. It’s extremely common and you are probably doing better with technology than you think you are. If you experience technology anxiety when you need to sit down to do something with technology that makes you anxious take a few deep centering breaths first. Deep breathing is proven to lower your heart rate, which helps lower anxiety.
Some technology topics the library has classes on in August include, iPads, Apple watches, ebooks, Android tablets, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and Library databases. In addition to these classes the library also offers Tech Help Tuesdays ever Tuesday from 1-2pm in the Local History Room! All technology centered questions are welcome! So if you get technology anxiety and we don’t have a class over your specific question come in on a Tuesday and ask. We will walk you through your question as best we can.
And now it’s time for Book Traveler, with Victor:
Welcome to Book Traveler. I am Victor, a librarian here at Largo Public Library and today I am going to be talking to you about a book called Immigrants and Refugees by Vamik D. Volkan.
Synopsis: Aside from the many political, cultural and economic aspects of the present refugee crisis in Europe, it is also crucial to consider the psychological element. In our fast-changing world, globalization, advances in communication technology, fast travel, terrorism and now the refugee crisis make psychoanalytic investigation of the Other a major necessity. Psychoanalyst Vamik Volkan, who left Cyprus for the US as a young man, brings his own experiences as an immigrant to bear on this study of the psychology of immigrants and refugees, and of those who cross paths with them. In Part 1, case examples illustrate the impact of traumatic experiences, group identity issues, and how traumas embedded in the experience of immigrants and refugees can be passed down from one generation to the next. Part 2 focuses on the host countries, considering the evolution of prejudice and how fear of newcomers can affect everything from international politics to the way we behave as individuals.
Opinion: The author raises awareness about the struggles immigrants and refugees face when they leave their home in search of a better life in a new country. The book does good research on the Freudian psychoanalysis that immigrants and refugees go through but forgets to emphasize the suffering and sometimes happiness of the stories presented. The book is read more as a theory of the psychology of immigrants and refugees in their travels and simplifies the cases of the people to whom it refers. Also, I would have liked to read the difference between the two (immigrants and refugees) according to psychoanalysis.
Anyway, it is a good book for anyone who has an interest in the topic of migration in the 21st century and wants more information on how this process affects people who are immigrants and refugees and their families.
Outro: It’s all for today, until the next edition of Book Traveler. Bye.
Stay safe everyone out there! Check out our programming page here as our planned programming has changed!
For everyone interested our intro music is by Break the Bans and the outro music is by Jahzzar, both artists can be found on Free Music Archive.
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