Thanks to Antonio L. Sartori for investing the time to write a thought-provoking (and long) review of my book, Distracted from Meaning: A Philosophy of Smartphones. The review is in the journal Teaching Philosophy (46 no. 4, December 2023, pp. 589-594).
I don’t use “thought-provoking” lightly here. Sartori’s review showed me some things about my book that had not occurred to me. For example, he makes interesting observations about why I found a particular group of philosophers to be useful in writing about our current technological predicament. I think he is correct, and what he says hadn’t occurred to me. I believe I was simply drawn to these philosophers organically, because they enabled me to say what I wanted to say. This is a fascinating bit of self-discovery, for which I owe thanks to Sartori.
My Chapter, “Performance, Technology, and the Good Life,” is now available at Oxford AcademicOnline (link below). The chapter will be included in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Phenomenology of Music. (Much respect to the editors for tackling and completing this enormous project: Jonathan De Souza, Benjamin Steege, and Jessica Wiskus.)
Abstract:
This chapter explores the relations between musical instruments, performance, sociality, and well-being by drawing upon Albert Borgmann’s philosophy of technology. In-passing, Borgmann categorizes musical instruments as “focal things.” He does not consider the implications of this characterization; this chapter does. Borgmann does not place musical performance in the associated category, “focal practice”; this chapter does. Among the benefits of examining performance and instruments through Borgmann’s framework, we are given the conceptual tools for understanding just how some technologies make a positive contribution to performance (in terms of what the author calls “technological paraphernalia”) and just how other technologies threaten the focal practice of performance (what Borgmann calls “technological devices”). More broadly, Borgmann has a unique way of articulating what it is to treat performance and instruments as ends in themselves rather than as means. Through this articulation, we see that performance and instruments can contribute to a good life through what Borgmann calls “centering.”
I am a professor of philosophy at Montclair State University, where I was Chair of the Philosophy department from 2015–2021. I write about meaningfulness, technology, art and music. My M.A. and Ph.D. are from Columbia University; my B.A. is from the University of Minnesota. I live in Montclair, New Jersey, with my favorite fiction writer, Jill Rosenberg, and Greta, our cat.
Linked below is a podcast interview about my 2023 book, Distracted from Meaning: A Philosophy of Smartphones, on the New Books in Philosophy podcast. (Thanks to Carrie Figdore for a thought-provoking conversation.)
“This is no neo-Luddite broadside against smartphones but a clear and careful philosophical exploration of what makes life meaningful and how smartphone use can either serve or undermine such meaning. Taking aim at the heart of our present age, Roholt’s book is consistently insightful and provocative.” Iain Thomson, Professor of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, USA
“Tiger Roholt’s Distracted from Meaning is an invaluable account of how the smartphone revolution impedes our pursuit of a meaningful life. Exploring overlooked ways that smartphones replace genuine experiences with unfocused fragmentation, Roholt details how they routinely and cumulatively undercut their purpose as a device for social engagement.” Theodore Gracyk, Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Minnesota State University Moorhead
Distracted from Meaning: A Philosophy of Smartphones
When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity.
By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt’s conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers—Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt’s argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring example, Roholt develops the classification of musical instruments as focal things, contending that musical performance can be fruitfully understood as a focal practice.
Through this exploration of what generates meaning in life, Roholt makes us rethink the place we allow smartphones to occupy in the everyday. But he remains cautiously optimistic. This thoughtful, needed interrogation of smartphones shows how we can establish a positive role for technologies within our lives.
I write philosophy of technology, meaningfulness, philosophy of art and music. Below is a list of my books, book chapters, and journal articles (including many links).
• “Philosophy of Music,” in The Grove Dictionary of American Music, second edition. Ed., Charles Hiroshi Garrett, (Oxford University Press, 2013). Also published online at Grove Music Online (Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press).
• “Musical Musical Nuance,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68 (2010): 1-10.
• “Musical Experience, Philosophical Perspectives,” in The Oxford Companion to Consciousness. Eds., Tim Bayne, Axel Cleeremans, and Patrick Wilken (Oxford University Press, 2009) Also published online at Oxford Reference.
In a social situation, why is it sometimes off-putting when a person reaches for his smartphone? In small-group contexts such as a college seminar, a business meeting, a family meal, or a small musical performance, when a person begins texting or interacting with social media on a smartphone he may disengage from the group. When we do find this off-putting, we typically consider it to be just impolite or inappropriate. In this essay, I argue that something more profound is at stake. One significant way in which individuals shape their self-identities is through interactions with others in small groups. Much identity-work is interdependent; it requires generating and preserving social contexts. I argue that the smartphone-use of some individuals can fracture a group’s context and thus negatively affect the identity-work of others. In this essay, I examine identity-work, sociality, and personal technology from a perspective of existential phenomenology.
My 2017 essay, “On the Divide: Analytic and Continental Philosophy of Music,” which was published in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, is one of the top-downloaded articles in the journal’s recent publication history. (By January 2018, the article had been downloaded 549 times.)
For an interesting response to my essay see Andreas Vrahimis, “Is There a Methodological Divide between Analytic and Continental Philosophy of Music? Response to Roholt.” In The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Volume 76, no. 1, 2018).
Follow these links for reviews and discussions of my book Groove: A Phenomenology of Rhythmic Nuance. I really appreciate the time these reviewers and writers invested in the book.
tiger roholt 