2017 MLA Annual Conference

Our lives online spill over into the "real" world and impact us financially, physically, socially, emotionally, and affect our personal and professional relationships, as well as our safety. But few people understand the operators behind these devices with which we are so comfortable. This talk is designed to open a discussion for your community and librarians about what the internet means to us and for us as humans, some easy steps on navigating the online world to avoid becoming easy prey, and what we can do as citizens to encourage "The Machine" to put people first in tech interactions. Know how companies and websites profit from our eyeballs (not literally) and our attention helps us to become more critical and discerning users of the net. This session is a quick and dirty run-through on how technology shapes our lives, and why we need to be our own first line of defense.