Digitized Lives: Culture, Power, and Social Change in the Internet Era

by T.V. Reed

In a remarkably short period of time the Internet and associated digital communication technologies have deeply changed the way millions of people around the globe live their lives. But what is the nature of that impact? In a series of chapters examining a range of issues including sexuality, politics, education, race, gender relations, the environment, and social protest movements "Making Sense of Our Digitized Lives "seeks answers to these central questions: What is truly new about so-called "new media," and what is just hype? In what ways have our lives been made better or worse by digital communication technologies? What can these devices and practices contribute to a richer cultural landscape, to a more socially and economically just world?

Cutting through the now vast and often contradictory literature on these topics, Reed avoids both techno-hype and techno-pessimism, offering instead succinct, witty and insightful introductory analyses of how digital communication is impacting our lives and reshaping the major social issues of our era. The book argues that making sense of digitized culture means looking past the glossy surface of techno gear to ask deeper questions about how we can utilize technology to create a more socially, politically, and economically equitable world. Above all, the book asks readers to remember that in the long run, the quality of our lives and solutions to social problems depend not on what technologies can do, but rather what we can do as citizens to put them to the best uses possible.

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[David Kirschner]

Excellent text for a lower level undergraduate course on sociology of media. It's written in an easy, conversational style. Chapters are posed as questions (How is the digital world made? Who are we online? Is everybody equal online?), and subsections are frequently posed as questions or debates (Is there a real world/virtual world divide? How queer is cyberspace? Do video games make kids violent?). Chapters are generally very short (most ~15 pages) and cover a breadth of ideas within each. As such, the book usually doesn't go much into depth about anything, which is why I say this is good for a lower level course or an introductory-ish course. The good thing about the many examples, questions, debates, and general breadth of the book is that the teacher and students can just run with what's in between the pages and do a lot of exploring and research on their own.

Breadth over depth can be a drawback as well. The book is very light on theory, so you'll want to bring that into class yourself. It's also light on using academic research to support its arguments. Much of the research cited is old or from websites and blogs instead of books or articles. So again, bolster where necessary. But overall, I enjoyed reading it, students enjoyed reading it and presenting on its chapters, and it's easy to connect its content to all sorts of other topics.