Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut Revised and Updated Edition - Softcover

Shenk, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062515519 ISBN 13: 9780062515513

Publisher: HarperOne, 1998

Synopsis

Media scholar ( and Internet Enthusiast ) David Shenk examines the troubling effects of information proliferation on our bodies, our brains, our relationships, and our culture, then offers strikingly down-to-earth insights for coping with the deluge.

With a skillful mixture of personal essay, firsthand reportage, and sharp analysis, Shenk illustrates the central paradox of our time: as our world gets more complex, our responses to it become increasingly simplistic. He draws convincing links between data smog and stress distraction, indecision, cultural fragmentation, social vulgarity, and more.

But there's hope for a saner, more meaningful future, as Shenk offers a wealth of novel prescriptions—both personal and societal—for dispelling data smog.

About this title

About the Author

David Shenk, a former Freedom Forum fellow, has written for Wired, Harper's, The New Republic, the New York Times and the Washington Post, and is a commentator for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

From the Inside Flap

We are awash in information: faxes, e-mail, news, infotainment, and advertising overwhelm us even as CEOs and politicians herald the dawn of a glorious and profitable Information Age. Media scholar and cyber-pundit David Shenk deftly dismantles all the hype and exposes the unsettling impact of information overload, or data smog , on our individual well-being (emotional and physical) and on our society at large. This myth-shattering manifesto also outlines a welter of practical strategies for minimizing data smog's polluting effects--from curtailing junkmail and telephone sales pitches to instituting all out "data-feasts."

Chronicling his own longstanding infatuation with information technology, and assessing our culture's unquestioning devotion to it, Shenk adds a direct, personal voice to a compelling mixture of firsthand reportage, insider intelligence, and incisive analysis. He skillfully explodes the rosy myths of the Information Age by cataloguing the effects technology has wrought, on our bodies, our minds, our relationships, and our policy. Still largely invisible, those profound cultural consequences become evident here, as Shenk draws convincing links between data smog and social fragmentation, declining educational standards, political fractiousness, religious fundamentalism, and more. Shenk does more than raise our consciousness, though: he offers a wealth of novel prescriptions, both personal and societal, for dispelling data smog.

For a world that increasingly favors speed above content, image above meaning, instant reaction above careful deliberation, Data Smog provides trenchant, lucidly reasoned alternatives that help us assess rather than embrace every new technology, and points the way toward a saner and more meaningful future.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062515519
• ISBN 13: 9780062515513
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256