Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age [Paperback]

Michael Bugeja (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195173392 | ISBN-13: 978-0195173390 | Publication Date: January 1, 2005

Electronic communication now keeps us connected, wired, and cabled to the entire world. Why, then, do we often feel displaced and increasingly isolated in the global village? Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age seeks to answer the question: have media and technology created a social gap, eroding our sense of community? Author Michael Bugeja tackles this question by taking a broad and interdisciplinary approach, incorporating a number of different viewpoints, including global, ethical, philosophical, corporate, pop cultural, and sociological perspectives. Bugeja analyzes the "interpersonal divide"--the void that develops between people when we spend too much time in virtual rather than in real communities--and makes a case for face-to-face communication in a technological world. He traces media history to show how other generations have coped with similar problems during periods of great technological change, recommending ways to "repatriate to the village."
Interpersonal Divide, a ground-breaking book, documents how long-standing media theories--including ones by Marshall McLuhan--may no longer hold in the wake of new media and intrusive technology. Bugeja investigates the impact and motives of media ecosystems that have polluted the Internet and other digital devices with marketing ploys, delivering to consumers a global mall rather than a global village. Interpersonal Divide informs readers how to use media and technology wisely so that they enhance rather than replace community.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Perhaps no previous scholar has synthesized the ways media technologies are harming a sense of community, especially in such a compact book. ... Perhaps [Bugeja] ought to give himself credit for implanting optimism in at least some of his readers, because his book, if read carefully, is empowering." -- The Des Moines Register

"Wise, troubling, tough-minded and profoundly on target, Interpersonal Divide is a thoughtfully human response to the burgeoning challenge to our sense and practice of community posed by the new communications technologies, their use as well as misuse." -- Hodding Carter III, President and CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

"Michael Bugeja has delivered a creative, new approach to media and technology in this thoughtful and humanistic treatment. The emphasis here is on meaning and human communication, not a tired polemic on the inevitability of technological change. . . . Refreshing!" -- Everette Dennis, Distinguished Felix E. Larkin Professor, Fordham University

"Michael Bugeja's Interpersonal Divide is a book of concerned prescription. An accomplished poet, an ethicist and a journalism professor, Bugeja aims to assess "changes resulting from the Technology Revolution of the 1990s." He's careful to note at the start of this admirably clear volume that he has not written a book of "social panic." But he has written one of social high anxiety. ... At the end of each chapter, he lists journal exercises and discussion ideas for those who feel inspired to examine their media habits. You could do a lot worse with your spare time (and probably will). Bugeja largely lives up to the second goal he set for himself -- to produce a multidisciplinary work "to explain complex truths in plain language rather than to validate those truths via complex language" --The Washington Post

About the Author

Michael Bugeja is at Iowa State University of Science and Technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195173392
• ISBN-13: 978-0195173390
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Bugeja is a professor and the director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. He is the author of 22 books, including Living Ethics Across Media Platforms (2008) and Interpersonal Divide: the Search for Community in a Technological Age (2005), both published by Oxford University Press and both winners of the Clifford G. Christians Award for Research in Media Ethics.

Dr. Bugeja's commentaries on media ethics and technology have been cited internationally in such outlets as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, The Guardian (UK), Toronto Globe & Mail (Canada), Die Welt (Germany), China Daily, The International Herald Tribune (France), The Ecologist (UK), The Futurist and the Associated Press as well as online news editions of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

An prolific magazine freelancer writer, Dr. Bugeja publishes frequently in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Quill, Editor & Publisher, The Futurist, The Ecologist and other online and print publications. He has served as contributing editor and/or correspondent for several magazines, including Writer's Digest, where he also was poetry columnist for several years. His Art & Craft of Poetry (Writer's Digest Press) is a classic, with 50,000 copies sold since 1994. In addition, Dr. Bugeja is a creative writer and winner of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship with publications in Harper's, Poetry, Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, and Sewanee Review, among others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age, October 17, 2007

By 

William W. Bauser - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age (Paperback)

Michael Bugeja's presentation of the issues that surround the use of technology in todays world are clear and concise. His point of the need of face-to-face contact between individuals is vital in developing civic engagement within a civil society. However, what Mr Bugeja fails to realize is the recursive self-reflective thinking process of individuals who are engaged in civil discourse with the aide of technolgy. Even though it is true to recognize that marketing technics do diminish the thought process of passive participants with technology, yet, when individuals do become aware of the marketing methods of 'group think', an active interaction with technology can enhance the thought and decision making process of those individuals who use technology as a tool for solving social and human capital problems.