Name: Data Smog
ISBN: 9780061844584

Data Smog

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.

What Hacker News says

nonrandomstringMar 2022

If you're looking for a book I wrote one specifically about this problem. Some of you may like it. It's short and has short chapters you can read in one "boredom chunk" of about 10 mins.

It's https://digitalvegan.net

One reason for making it an old fashioned paper book is that some of the ideas it presents would simply be censored on what the internet is becoming.

It's not really written as "self-help", more as philosophical musings for intellectual self-defence. Many people who have read it tell me they successfully quit their smartphone.

As ongoing research in modern critical technology studies I'm trying to keep a list of ones I read and at least found interesting (below). Good luck finding the courage to take back control of your technology.

Jenny Oddell How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Paul Kingsnorth Life versus the machine

Roger McNamee Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

Siva Vaidhyanathan Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us

Virginia Eubanks Automating Inequality

Sophie Brickman Baby Unplugged

Mike Monteiro Ruined by Design

Thomas Kersting Disconnected: Protect Your Kids Against Device Dependency

Nicholas Kardaras Glow Kids

Jaron Lanier Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media

Douglas Rushkoff Team Human

Carissa Véliz Privacy is Power: Why You Should Take Back Control

David Shenk Data Smog

Paulina Borsook Cyberselfish

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dredmorbiusDec 2021

One of the authors (Andrew L. Shapiro) wrote the 1999 book The Control Revolution. It's something of a sibling to Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (Shapiro was a student of Lessig's), though its focus is somewhat different.

The first part reads (intentionally) archingly technophillic. That's balanced by the following sections.

The number of currently-extant issues identified with piercing accuracy is ... large. I strongly recommend the book.

David Shenk's Data Smog is similarly pioneering and insightful.

Other signers are better known. Douglas Rushkoff's current project is his Team Human podcast, he's also known for his book Cyberia, both of which are strongly critical of tech trends since the late 1990s. Steven Johnson has written several books on technology. Paulina Borsook wrote Cyberselfish.

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nonrandomstringFeb 2022

FWIW Mandie, here's my list of modern pop tech critique, all topics that DV touches at least tangentially. Far more than 40 days and nights worth of reading

Shoshana Zuboff Big Other (surveillance capitalism)

Virginia Eubanks Automating Inequality

Sophie Brickman Baby Unplugged

Cory Doctorow Radicalized

Mike Monteiro Ruined by Design

Nick Srnicek Platform Capitalism

Paul Kingsnorth Life versus the machine

Heather Burns Understanding Privacy

Roger McNamee Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

Siva Vaidhyanathan Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us

Catherine Price How to Break Up With Your Phone

Thomas Kersting Disconnected: Protect Your Kids Against Device Dependency