| Qty | Store | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Beaverton | Literary Criticism- General |
| 1 | Beaverton | Business- History and Biography |
| 1 | Burnside | Featured Titles- History and Social Science |
| 2 | Hawthorne | Sociology- General |
| 1 | Remote Warehouse | Sociology- General |
| 8 | Remote Warehouse | General- General |
| Hide store locations | ||
|
|
|
About This Book
ISBN13: 9780385522656 
|
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Of course the Internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. It's become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn't just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven't yet reckoned. The web and its cultural correlatives and by-products — such as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the "bourgeois bohemian" — have turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused "self-expression" with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade using the language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machine — that confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity.
Siegel's argument isn't a Luddite intervention against the Internet itself but rather a bracing appeal for us to contend with how it is transforming us all. Dazzlingly erudite, full of startlingly original insights, and buoyed by sharp wit, Against the Machine will force you to see our culture — for better and worse — in an entirely new way.
Review:
Review:
Review:
Review:
Review:
Synopsis:
About the Author
What Our Readers Are Saying
Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
-
Andrea Learned, May 20, 2008 (view all comments by Andrea Learned)
Siegel tells it like no one else has yet - and I hope he is not the last to write about this topic. He points out that knowledge is different than information (information being what the Internet serves up and knowledge being what contributes to wisdom) and he offers up much due criticism of the 24/7 news cycle (the airport gate waiting area always comes to my mind - exactly who decided all passengers wanted to be blown away by CNN?): "The manic news cycle, in which the hottest, newest stories immediately give way to hotter, newer stories, gives its audience the illusion that they and the world they live in are ageless. Information has become fashion cycles for the mind."
He criticizes the blog realm for it being solely (pretty much) a popularity contest, and on and on with points that will likely resonate with a lot of readers (even bloggers). I recommend this book as a counterpoint and voice of reason for anyone who's had the sneaking suspicion that information overkill isn't necessarily a positive cultural development.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780385522656
- Subtitle:
- Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Spiegel & Grau
- Subject:
- Media Studies
- Subject:
- Popular Culture
- Subject:
- Information technology
- Subject:
- Social Aspects - General
- Subject:
- Social aspects
- Subject:
- Internet - General
- Publication Date:
- January 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 182
- Dimensions:
- 8.58x6.54x.80 in. .67 lbs.
