Customer Reviews

Distraction: Being human in the digital age

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In short, this book is about us people surviving in a world that is becoming ever more intrusive in the various technologies. It is to computers and cellphones what Charlie Chaplin's movie Modern Times was to the industrial revolution. Curtis puts in very human terms and touching stories and examples totally commonplace issues that are hassling us all, such as the overload of incoming e-mails or the ever-present ringing of the cellphone.

I work in the industry for digital convergence and am thus professionally exposed to a lot of the current thinking in this space. I read a lot from Rheingold's Smart Mobs to Beck's Got Game and just about everything about evolving technologies inbetween. This book was still able to touch me very deeply and had lots of revealing insights and many thoughts Curtis presents have resurfaced time and again, clearly rolling around in my mind. Reading the book, from chapter to chapter, I was hit again and again with the thought "oh my, and that's just like me; but I never thought of THAT as being a universal trait or experience." Reading the book gave an immense sense of calm in reacting to the rapid changes in society today.

He writes from personal experience through the high tech companies he has founded and uses many revealing examples from companies that have revolutionized parts of the industry. If you want a visionary book on the near future, and want to understand the humanity of it all, whether a sociologist to see it from the viewpoint of the human, or from the view point of the business/IT person wanting to make technology work better for us all, this is a book you will find most rewarding to read. I completely recommend it to all.

Tomi T Ahonen / UK