Dying From Selfies And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away about what’s going on in the digital world. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed: 

• People are dying to be famous. Literally. Between 2011 – 2017 over 250 people have died from – wait for it – taking a selfie. Top three ways? Drowning, transportation related (being hit by a train) and falling (cliff edges, etc…). Some might call it Darwinism, some might stop and realize just how strange technology has truly made us all!
• Terry’s despair: The growing trend of “Flat Earthers.” Note the Harvard Professor/Author quoted in this CBS News piece, The Flat Earth movement: A society of disbelievers in scientific fact: “Oftentimes younger people will say, ‘Well, the internet is just a big library.’ That’s wrong; the internet is a big dumpster. There’s no guarantee that anything you find on it is true.”  
• It’s not just bad for the brain and development… it’s bad for the eyes too. Thanks, screens! According to Dr. Langis Michaud of the Université de Montréal, too much screen time is doing real damage to young people’s eyes. “We see patients at 20 years old with eyes looking like they are 50 or 60.” Yikes! 
• App of the Week: Waking Up by Sam Harris.