Aleyna Dogan

About

Most of my thinking lives between two questions that rarely get asked together: what is this technology actually doing to us, and what does it mean to live well. I write about emerging tech, psychology, ethics, and societal change as one interconnected problem. New technologies rarely invent new problems; they make the old ones faster, stranger, and harder to notice. I'm interested in noticing them, and in finding solutions.

I graduated from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a focus on technology ethics, and I am currently pursuing a master’s in Philosophy and Economics at the University of Vienna. Alongside my writing, I help publish books at Nâra Kitap, a Turkish literary publisher devoted to translated literature.

Can’t Hold Your Hand, I’m Holding My Phone: How Technology Shapes Society, Identity, and Truth

Coming September 2026 · Publishing worldwide

What comes after the smartphone era? How do we live well in a culture engineered to exhaust our attention? What would it take to build technology that serves humans, instead of the other way around?

Across 24 chapters, Can’t Hold Your Hand, I’m Holding My Phone moves through the defining ethical questions of our digital age — algorithmic radicalization, the misinformation maze, surveillance and facial recognition, the loneliness epidemic, AI bias, the environmental costs of innovation, the future of work, and what comes after the smartphone. Part philosophy, part field guide. Each chapter pairs rigorous analysis with a story, a set of thought starters, and concrete tools you can use to protect yourself.

A philosophy of technology for people who feel the pull of their devices and want to understand it. Can’t Hold Your Hand, I’m Holding My Phone asks what emerging tech is doing to attention, agency, and meaning — and how to stay human inside it.