Samantha Sprole, M.A.

SAMANTHA SPROLE is a proud union apprentice electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 429 (Nashville, TN). She has lived in five countries and traveled to many more. After pursuing a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and graduate degrees in education and social science research, she found her spiritual home in the organized skilled trades. Together with her passion for revolutionary narratives, collective direct action, agitprop, soul music, regenerative ecology and design, she’s oriented her life toward adventure and creative frenzy.

Samantha Sprole won the second prize award in our first prize competition regarding the question of “How Does the Digitization of Our World Change Our Orientation?” In her essay, entitled “Meet the Moment: An Inventory of Experience in the Digital Era and the Call for Orientation Virtues,” she points to seven distinctive aspects of digital technology and how they constitute both gains and losses within the orientation worlds that define our contemporary culture. She further describes how the proliferation of “orientation virtues” could help foster a new era of digital culture more immune to addiction, cognitive overload, and misinformation.