‘Disconnect: Conversation in the Digital Age’ Panel Includes West Hartford Residents

The CT Forum & Mark Twain House have partnered to put together a distinguished panel, that includes West Hartford residents, to discuss how modern technology has changed the way we communicate.

Submitted

On Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m., The Connecticut Forum in partnership with the Mark Twain House & Museum presents DISCONNECT: Conversation in the Digital Age. The event is an (old-fashioned) conversation with three nationally-recognized digital experts to discuss how social media and our ubiquitous devices have impacted the art of authentic conversation. If conversation is how we truly connect to others, what happens when face-to-face communication decreases?

The panel will feature Dr. David Greenfield from the Center for Internet & Technology Addiction, Slow Tech Movement founder Janell Burley Hofmann, and tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar. Jamie Daniel, director of programming at The Connecticut Forum, will moderate the conversation.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with the Twain House on this timely event,” said CT Forum Executive Director Doris Sugarman. “We welcome opportunities like this to facilitate and encourage dialogue about compelling topics that impact our communities and our lives.”

Jointly presented by The Connecticut Forum at The Mark Twain House & Museum at 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford, this evening promises to be an entertaining and engaging conversation. Put down your smartphone for the night and join us as we explore the different types of human connection.

Tickets for DISCONNECT are $10; $5 for Mark Twain House & Museum Members and Connecticut Forum subscribers. To make reservations, call (860) 247-0998 or visit MarkTwainHouse.org and click on the Events tab. For coverage of this event, please contact Jamie Daniel at (860) 509-0909 ext. 14 or [email protected].

Janell Burley Hofman is the author of the book, iRules: What Every Tech-Healthy Family Needs to Know About Selfies, Sexting, Gaming and Growing Up. She is also a speaker and consultant on topics like technology, media, health, relationships and personal growth. Janell Burley Hofmann engages readers, clients and audiences in relevant and meaningful conversations igniting personal empowerment, awareness and purpose. Janell serves families, schools and communities in a partnership that will positively impact the lives of children and teens. She will be signing copies of her book after the program.

Dr. David Greenfield is the founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction (virtual-addiction.com) and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is recognized as one of the world’s leading voices on Internet, computer, and digital media behavior, and a pioneer concerning compulsive and addictive use. He is the author of the Virtual Addiction, which rang an early warning bell with tech overuse when it came out in 1999.

Dr. Greenfield lectures to public and medical/psychiatric groups throughout the world, and has appeared numerous times on CNN, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Fox News, The O’Reilly Report, Anderson Cooper, and NBC News, and HBO. His work has also been featured in U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, Newsweek, People, Time, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Economist, and numerous other popular publications. He is widely credited with popularizing the variable ratio reinforcement schedule of Internet use and abuse and the dopamine/tech use connection … a topic he was discussing in the late 90s.

David Ryan Polgar is a frequent speaker and respected tech commentator/writer. His ideas and thoughts have been featured in The Boston Globe, Financial Times, SirusXM, Sydney Morning Herald, VentureBeat, US News & WorldReport,TEDx, Metro, Forbes, HuffPost Live, Entrepreneur, New York Times (online), Inc.com, and many more.

With a background as an attorney and educator, he digs below the surface to examine our tech use from an ethical, legal, and emotional perspective. The result is a unique look into emerging trends and business insight. He recently launched Humanizing Your Brand with digital ad agency IMRE/5Loom.

Polgar is not your regular tech guy talking about the latest gadget. Instead, he explores the impact that emerging tech is having on us on an individual and cultural level. Commonly found on lifestyle TV shows, some common topics include tech etiquette, digital diets, digital citizenship, post-death communication, mental obesity, selfie culture, and family tech use.

The Connecticut Forum is a one-of-a-kind 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving Connecticut and beyond with live, unscripted conversations among renowned experts and celebrities, and community outreach programs including the Connecticut YOUTH Forum.

Our mission is to encourage the free and active exchange of ideas in Forums that inform, challenge, entertain, inspire and build bridges among all people and organizations in our community.

Since 1992, more than 300 world-renowned panelists have had their say about hundreds of provocative issues at Connecticut Forum evenings, which are live, unscripted and completely unpredictable. Past panelists include: President Bill Clinton, Toni Morrison, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gloria Steinem, Malcolm Gladwell, Anna Quindlen, Kurt Vonnegut, and more than 300 others.

At The Connecticut Forum, audiences find open, honest, civil dialogue – the free and active exchange of ideas that allows us to question our assumptions, consider new points of view, entertain our souls and connect with each other, stimulated by discovery and enriched by our differences…no winners or losers, no “them” versus “us.”

The Mark Twain House & Museum has restored the author’s Hartford, Connecticut, home, where the author and his family lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain wrote his most important works during the years he lived there, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

In addition to providing tours of Twain’s restored home, a National Historic Landmark, the institution offers activities and educational programs that illuminate Twain’s literary legacy and provide information about his life and times.

The house and museum at 351 Farmington Ave. are open daily from 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. The house and museum is closed Tuesdays in January and February. For more information, call (860) 247-0998 or visit www.MarkTwainHouse.org.

Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Department of Economic & Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign. The Waterford Hotel Group is the official hotel group of The Mark Twain House & Museum.