List Price: $24.99 Details

Save: $11.49 (46%)

FREE delivery: Nov 24 - Dec 1

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

$$13.50 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Urban-Vogue

Sold by

Urban-Vogue

Details

Ships from

Urban-Vogue

Sold by

Urban-Vogue

Return policy: Returnable until Jan 31, 2022

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Monday, Dec 6 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Friday, Nov 26
Order within 5 hrs and 22 mins Details

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Jenson Books Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Other Sellers on Amazon

$13.33
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Gulf Coast Books LLC

$9.35
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: GreenIceMedia

$10.59
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Virginia Bookmen

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

William Powers

Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age Hardcover – June 29, 2010

by William Powers (Author)

169 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$13.50

$9.17

$1.16

Paperback

"Please retry"

$8.64

$4.23

$1.77

Enhance your purchase

“A brilliant and thoughtful handbook for the Internet age.” —Bob Woodward

“Incisive ... Refreshing ... Compelling.” —Publishers Weekly

A crisp, passionately argued answer to the question that everyone who’s grown dependent on digital devices is asking: Where’s the rest of my life? Hamlet’s BlackBerry challenges the widely held assumption that the more we connect through technology, the better. It’s time to strike a new balance, William Powers argues, and discover why it's also important to disconnect. Part memoir, part intellectual journey, the book draws on the technological past and great thinkers such as Shakespeare and Thoreau. “Connectedness” has been considered from an organizational and economic standpoint—from Here Comes Everybody to Wikinomics—but Powers examines it on a deep interpersonal, psychological, and emotional level. Readers of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Outliers will relish Hamlet’s BlackBerry.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper
Publication date

June 29, 2010
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.97 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

0061687162
ISBN-13

978-0061687167
See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Ken Bain
325
Hardcover
132 offers from $1.60
Noah Adams
78
Paperback
117 offers from $0.99
Atul Gawande
1,459
Paperback
253 offers from $0.94
Nicholas Carr
1,801
Paperback
62 offers from $5.09
Sherry Turkle
633
Paperback
94 offers from $1.80
Powers
6
Paperback
13 offers from $4.56

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Ken Bain
325
Hardcover
132 offers from $1.60
Noah Adams
78
Paperback
117 offers from $0.99
Atul Gawande
1,459
Paperback
253 offers from $0.94
Deborah Fallows
172
Hardcover
61 offers from $1.35
Nicholas Carr
1,801
Paperback
62 offers from $5.09
Ashlee Humphreys
23
Paperback
45 offers from $19.50

Special offers and product promotions

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Our discombobulated Internet Age could learn important new tricks from some very old thinkers, according to this incisive critique of online life and its discontents. Journalist Powers bemoans the reigning dogma of digital maximalism that requires us to divide our attention between ever more e-mails, text messages, cellphone calls, video streams, and blinking banners, resulting, he argues, in lowered productivity and a distracted life devoid of meaning and depth. In a nifty and refreshing turn, he looks to ideas of the past for remedies to this hyper-modern predicament: to Plato, who analyzed the transition from the ancient technology of talking to the cutting-edge gadgetry of written scrolls; to Shakespeare, who gave Hamlet the latest in Elizabethan information apps, an erasable notebook; to Thoreau, who carved out solitary spaces amid the press of telegraphs and railroads. The author sometimes lapses into mysticism—In solitude we meet not just ourselves but all other selves—and his solutions, like the weekend-long Internet Sabbaths he and his wife decreed for their family, are small-bore. But Powers deftly blends an appreciation of the advantages of information technology and a shrewd assessment of its pitfalls into a compelling call to disconnect. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“[An] elegant meditation on our obsessive connectivity and its effect on our brains and our very way of life.” (Laurie Winer, New York Times Book Review)

“Powers mounts a passionate but reasoned argument for ‘a happy balance’. . . . [He] is a lively, personable writer who seeks applicable lessons from great thinkers of the past. . . . Lucid, engaging prose and [a] thoughtful take on the joys of disconnectivity.” (Heller McAlpin, Christian Science Monitor)

“A brilliant and thoughtful handbook for the Internet age—why we have this screen addiction, its many perils, and some surprising remedies that can make your life better.” (Bob Woodward)

“In this delightfully accessible book, Powers asks the questions we all need to ask in this digitally driven time. And teaches us to answer them for ourselves.” (Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid)

“Benjamin Franklin would love this book. He knew the power of being connected, but also how this must be balanced by moments of reflection. William Powers offers a practical guide to Socrates’ path to the good life in which our outward and inward selves are at one.” (Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life)

“Always connected. Anytime. Anyplace. We know it’s a blessing, but we’re starting to notice that it’s also a curse. In Hamlet’s Blackberry, William Powers helps us understand what being ‘connected’ disconnects us from, and offers wise advice about what we can do about it…. A thoughtful, elegant, and moving book.” (Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper; 1st edition (June 29, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061687162
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061687167
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.55 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.97 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,676,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,670 in Social Aspects of Technology
- #8,174 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #30,934 in Sociology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
169 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

William Powers

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

From www.williampowers.com:

William Powers was born in Arizona and grew up in Rhode Island. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in history and literature. He began his journalism career at The Washington Post where in the 1990s he covered business, politics, popular culture and other subjects. His widely read Post column, The Magazine Reader, launched his career as a leading thinker and writer on life in the age of information.

His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, McSweeney's, The Guardian and many other publications. He is a two-time winner of the Arthur Rowse Award for best American media commentary.

In 2008 he began writing a book about how to live wisely and happily in a connected world. The result is Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age (HarperCollins, 2010), a crisp, passionately argued answer to the question that everyone who's grown dependent on digital devices is asking: Where's the rest of my life?

Powers challenges the widely held assumption that the more we connect through technology, the better. It's time to strike a new balance, he argues, and discover why it's also important to disconnect. Part memoir, part intellectual journey, the book draws on the technological past and such thinkers as Shakespeare, Thoreau and McLuhan.

He is currently working as a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He is married to author Martha Sherrill and they live in Massachusetts with their son.

For more information, visit his website: www.williampowers.com.

Customer reviews

5 star		57%
4 star		23%
3 star		11%
2 star		6%
1 star		4%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Dennis A. Turner

A Context for the Smart Screen Communications Revolution

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

By citing the Blackberry phone in the title the book shows its age a bit, since Blackberry is a disappearing brand. But the thesis of the book is still sound: our various screen devices create challenges to our lives and create real problems in how, when, and how much we communicate with others.. The initial essay chapters are sort of basic, hammering on a theme that could be set out in a couple of succinct paragraphs. Where the book begins to shine is in the several chapters where Powers looks at the challenges that new media have created throughout history. Interesting explorations of Socrates, Plato, Guttenberg,Shakespeare, etc. and how the the- established communications norms were challenged by new technologies and memes.This is a very easy read, and, if you are not versed in the history of human communications, it's a quick way to catch up on some important steps in its evolution.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

C. L. Ferle

An accessible guidebook for a major problem

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

Powers has managed to put into words all the vague feelings of disconnection and superficiality that I've battled ever since I began relying on my computer to run my life and work. Citing numerous studies and reputable sources, he articulates the emptiness many of us are experiencing -- even when we've got hundreds of Facebook friends and followers on Twitter.

But Powers offers a balanced view of this growing problem. In particular, I like the way he reminds us that technology is an incredibly useful and amazing tool. He's not suggesting that we totally unplug and head for a lone cabin in the woods.

Powers approaches the topic as a philosopher, a humanitarian, asking us to examine WHY we've become reliant on our gadgets at the expense of deeper relationships and real personal freedom. He asks us to consider WHAT is really dictating what we do with our lives every day -- a computer or our inner compass? He invites us to reexamine people throughout history who've accomplished masterpieces and major achievements -- in spite of the distractions of their time.

Most important of all, his writing style is crisp, clear, and direct, making it easy to digest some difficult material from important philosophers, from Socrates to McLuhan. This is an important book and ought to be required reading. But those who need it most will probably dismiss it. Their loss. -- Cindy La Ferle

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mark Oshman

Wisdom for the digital age.

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

If you're like me, you love technology and all the latest digital gadgets... but you've also noticed some previously unexpected negative consequences of living on the cutting edge of technological expansion. While it has been great to connect with your current friends, friends from years past, close and distant family members, as well as other peers, colleagues, and various businesses, the ever-increasing level of connectedness has begun to eat away at your life. Add to this your favorite websites and news sources (espn.com for me), and hours from each day seem to vanish... as if they were never there. Meanwhile, all the digital connectedness adds a level of stress and hurriedness that was not present a few years ago. Now anyone of your hundreds of facebook friends can send you an email or post on your wall fully expecting a reply asap... If you resonate with any of this, you should read William Powers book Hamlet's Blackberry.

In this book, Powers does a great job of showing both the benefits of our modern technology as well as the potential negatives for the quality of lives we lead. Powers is not a technological luddite, he loves his smartphone, wifi, and laptop as much as anyone else.

This book is divided into three parts: In part one, Powers shows how we have embraced a very poor philosophy of technology. Basically, we have become technological maximalists. We assume, and the advertisements tell us, that the more you can be connected the better. However, As we embrace more and more connectedness, we're losing one thing that is very essential to living meaningful lives: depth. In the busyness of technological engagement, both the hurriedness of it all and the mediums by which we engage promote shallow thinking, engagement, and relationships (think facebook, IMing, Twitter, etc.).

In part two, Powers takes a look a look back in history to learn from what he calls the "Seven Philosophers of Screens". This section really gives this book a lot of value and perspective on the issues at hand. Put briefly, here are the seven philosophers and the lessons learned from their lives or writings:

1. Plato - The Principle of Distance - Here Power's recounts a story from the life of Socrates where the philosopher and a student take a walk outside of the busy connected life of the city of Athens in order to engage in some meaningful dialogue.

2. Seneca - The Principle of Inner Space - When physical distance is not possible, it is still possible to create internal distance by focusing one's attention on one subject or one person at a time while blocking out all other distractions. This can bee done through writing a friend a letter, or meeting someone for coffee with cell phones turned off.

3. Gutenberg - The Principle of Technological Inwardness - Here Powers shows how through the invention of the printing press, Gutenberg opened up the door for people to become inwardly focused through reading (previously reading was more a public event). Likewise today, we can use even our laptops for inwardness as we focus on just one task at a time. For example, consider closing all other windows and applications, as well as turning off your wifi while writing a paper or blog (as I am doing now).

4. Shakespeare - Old Tools Ease Overload - In one scene in the play Hamlet, Hamlet takes out a `table' (think moleskin notepad) and writes something down to be remembered later. This simple task of technological regression is becoming more and more popular today as people write on their moleskin notepads instead of using their smart phones. Something simple and profound happens in our thinking and focus when we do this.

5. Ben Franklin - The Principle of Positive Rituals - Ben Franklin lived a very busy life, yet he was remarkable productive and successful in many areas of life. Franklin attributed this to his developing of `positive rituals' in his life. Think of it as not only eliminating bad habits, but developing a set of good habits.

6. Thoreau - Principle of the Walden Zones - Just as Thoreau withdrew from the busyness of modern life for two years at Walden, we too should create different `zones' in our homes for places of technological refuge. This can be done either by location (certain rooms) or time (certain disconnected times such as weekends or mornings etc.).

7. McLuhan - The Principle of Monitoring the Inner Thermostat - McLuhan is known primarily for two catch-phrases: "the global village" and "The medium is the message." The overriding theme of McLuhan is that even though technological engagement is ubiquitous, we still have the ability and responsibility as human beings to think through our engagement of technology. We are not robots. We should own and use technology to advance our lives, not let technology own us.
In part three, the author suggests potential applications for his readers as well as giving examples from his own life and family of learning how to disconnect and reclaim our lives.

This book helped clarify and solidify much of my own growing dissatisfaction and concern with my level of technological engagement. For starters, I've decided to go on a media fast each Monday (our family day off together), as well as discontinue my Facebook account. If McLuhan was right, "the medium is the message", then what's the predominant message of Facebook? All too often I think Facebook's message can be summed up by one word: narcissism. I may return to facebook in the future, as I've already developed some of what Franklin called "positive rituals", but for now I think I'll try this experiment for a little and see how my life is affected. In the short-term, I've already enjoyed more meaningful conversation with family and time reading books. Life is too short to flutter about in the shallows, I want to go deep.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

Hamlet had a Blackberry!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

Well, not quite. But this book takes us on a leisurely journey to meet some of the greats from the past, and to examine how they handled the pressures of the new technologies of their day. Socrates, for example, who loved the connectedness of the city life, and who was not at all keen to be away from it in case he missed something, is a wonderful case study for the modern man or woman who can't bear to be away from e-mail, texts, Twitter and so on ... because who know's what might be happening, and we daren't miss it!

An enjoyable read, with some history lessons thrown into the mix.

Bobski

Dunno

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2019

Verified Purchase

Some time ago now - can't have been that good because I can't remember it,

Gethin Darklord

Read Hamlet not this book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

Switch off your electronic device and enjoy some real life. There you don't need to read this book now and can spend the time saved doing something useful like reading Hamlet.

Heather

A Great Prespective on Modern Digital Life

Reviewed in Canada on June 11, 2016

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed William Powers' musing about connectedness, the Internet, and social media. He takes a journey through literature and philosophy past and present, and makes the argument that we need to make our own decisions about technology.

I think many of us can relate to Powers' struggle to decide just how connected we should be. He tells stories about the benefits of being connected (e.g. being reachable in an emergency) and the benefits of breaking away from the screen (e.g. enjoying the quiet time to write, self-reflect, etc.) He brings up so many good points, and leaves it to the reader to make the decision about what is best for them.

I've dogeared several sections in the book where Powers provides some suggestions and guidelines for technology usage. I particularly liked the section where he discusses inventing your own life, especially the enumeration of Franklin's virtues and his recording tables. Powers doesn't dismiss or disparage technology, instead he writes about how to tame it and use it so that it adds to your life, rather than letting it control you life.

As a confirmed Internet and iPhone junkie, I feel that Powers' book has helped me reevaluate my screen time and how it effects my life.

Steve P

A relaxing read for a relaxing life

Reviewed in Australia on June 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this relaxing read about managing the overwhelming pressure to connect using modern technology. Sensible, wise advice. If you are a user of social media (and who isn't), you'll enjoy rethinking your relationship to it.

See all reviews