Freebook! - Buy Two, Get One Free
 
 

Special Offers see all

Enter to WIN!

Weekly drawing for $100 credit. Subscribe to PowellsBooks.news for a chance to win.
Privacy Policy

More at Powell's

Recently Viewed clear list

Original Essays | September 17, 2013

Lyanda Lynn Haupt: IMG Celebrate Fiercely: Creative Life in Wild Cities

1 comment By Lyanda Lynn Haupt

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Michael Toms for the iconic New Dimensions radio show. Toms, often called the... Continue »
  1. $18.90 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild

    Lyanda Lynn Haupt 9780316178525
spacer
Ships free on qualified orders.
$19.50
List price: $28.00
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Burnside - Bldg. 2 Popular Science- Computer Science

More copies of this ISBN

The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleague

by

The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleague Cover

ISBN13: 9780316208260
ISBN10: 0316208264
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $19.50!

 

Synopses & Reviews

Review:

"In this practical guide to better, more 'contemplative computing,' Pang, a historian of technology, teaches readers a valuable set of skills to better enable them to deal with an increasing reliance on ever-more intrusive and distracting forms of mobile technology. Along the way, the author provides an elegant tour through current neuroscience and an examination of the nature of attention to find better ways to handle our contemporary digital mediascape. In seven extended chapters, Pang assesses attention-focusing tools (e.g., aesthetically minimal word-processing software like WriteRoom and Internet blockers like Freedom), as well as strategies like meditation and scheduled 'Sabbaths' away from stimulation like e-mail, push notifications, and other calls for attention. Pang's methods will be familiar to readers of other time-management manifestos, but he successfully renders them concrete, practical, and contemporary. His history of technology is also fascinating, drawing from sources far removed from the digital sphere. Pang's tome is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to take control of his or her digital life, and it's a great primer on the interplay between mind and tech. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Pagnamenta Agency." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
code7r, July 27, 2013 (view all comments by code7r)
“The Distraction Addition” by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is a book for our times. Mr. Pang recognizes how we are all becoming slaves to technology, with checking our email every few seconds, to “switch-tasking” which most people think is multi-tasking,” to forgetting how to just be with ourselves and with others.

Throughout the book, Mr. Pang brings things to the reader’s attention that seem obvious but really isn’t until he points it out. One of these is watching how you breathe before, during and after checking your email. I did and was surprised that I held my breath a little when I was pulling my email up! Mr. Pang refers to this as email-apnea and compares it to sleep apnea and it cannot be good for you.

I really like that Mr. Pang has antidotes about himself and his family sprinkled throughout the book to illustrate what the problem is and how he has tried dealing with it. He discusses studies that have been done to help support his various arguments. He has conversations with various people throughout the world (including monks!).

This book isn’t really ground-breaking, but it is full of commonsense about how to handle taking care of ourselves and not letting technology take over our lives so much that we do not take care of our mental, physical and psychological health. I say it is commonsense, but oftentimes commonsense is elusive until someone points it out. Mr. Pang offers ideas on how to reduce our stresses that are brought on by being plugged-in all the time.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780316208260
Author:
Soojung Kim Pang, Alex
Publisher:
Little Brown and Company
Author:
Soojung-Kim Pang, Alex
Subject:
Sociology-Media
Publication Date:
20130831
Binding:
HARDCOVER
Language:
English
back to top

Related Subjects

Computers and Internet » Computers Reference » History and Society
Computers and Internet » Computers Reference » Social Aspects » Human and Computer Interaction
History and Social Science » Sociology » Media
Reference » Science Reference » Philosophy of Science
Science and Mathematics » Popular Science » Computer Science

The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleague Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$19.50 In Stock
Product details pages Little Brown and Company - English 9780316208260 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "In this practical guide to better, more 'contemplative computing,' Pang, a historian of technology, teaches readers a valuable set of skills to better enable them to deal with an increasing reliance on ever-more intrusive and distracting forms of mobile technology. Along the way, the author provides an elegant tour through current neuroscience and an examination of the nature of attention to find better ways to handle our contemporary digital mediascape. In seven extended chapters, Pang assesses attention-focusing tools (e.g., aesthetically minimal word-processing software like WriteRoom and Internet blockers like Freedom), as well as strategies like meditation and scheduled 'Sabbaths' away from stimulation like e-mail, push notifications, and other calls for attention. Pang's methods will be familiar to readers of other time-management manifestos, but he successfully renders them concrete, practical, and contemporary. His history of technology is also fascinating, drawing from sources far removed from the digital sphere. Pang's tome is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to take control of his or her digital life, and it's a great primer on the interplay between mind and tech. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Pagnamenta Agency." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...




Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.