Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age

William Powers

Harper Collins, Jun 29, 2010 - Social Science - 288 pages

“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.

Contents

• In a Digital World: 9
• Falling Out with the Connected: 37
• The Trouble with Not Really: 67
• Plato Discovers Distance: 83
• Seneca on Inner Space: 101
• Gutenberg and the Business: 121
• Shakespeare on the Beauty: 137
• Ben Franklin on Positive: 157
• Thoreau on Making: 175
• McLuhan and the Thermostat: 193
• Practical Philosophies for Every Day: 209
• The Internet Sabbath: 223
• Back to the Room: 235
• Acknowledgments: 241
• Further Reading: 263

About the author

Award-winning media critic William Powers has written for the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and McSweeney's, among other publications. He lives on Cape Cod with his wife, the author Martha Sherrill, and their son.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age
• Author: William Powers
• Edition: unabridged
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2010
• ISBN: 0062002872, 9780062002877
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Social Aspects; Social Science / General; Social Science / Technology Studies; Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects