Distraction: Begin Human in the Digital Age

Description

Obsessed with what we can do with our mobile phones and the web, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture, because so much is changing and so fast. We are distracted by it. This book steps back to look at our use of new technology and draws some uncomfortable and challenging conclusions about what society may need to do to get the best, not the worst, out of the digital era.

    * Why are our fundamental notions of space and time changing?

    * Why going mobile is the big difference.

    * How new technology makes us prefer the distant to the close at hand

    * Can we sustain current levels of communication? Will we have to start blocking things out? How are people doing this already?

    * Why time is the biggest issue for most people, and technology is not helping.

    * How can we make media deeper?

    * How our sense of who we are is changing too.

    * Why building trust online is going to be so important, and such a challenge.

    * Why we need to focus on social networks.

    * Why a new sense of discipline is required to prevent us drowning in distraction.

    * Why each of us can use digital to be creative.

CONTENTS:

Distraction: Being Human in the Digital Age

Preamble

Introduction

Part One: The Social Price of New Technology

1. The Decline of Context

2. Space Matters

3. Going Mobile

4. Distraction Technologies

5. The Impact of Media on Social Capital

6. Sustainable Communication

7. The Time Paradox

Part Two: The Social Potential of New Technology

8. Deep Media

9. Identity and Trust

10. Social Networks

11. Adapting Our Behaviour

12. The Rise of Personal Content