High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening, entertaining, and fascinating
Review: Are you a conscious consumer? Or do you passively accept every technology trend that comes your way, believing the promises you hope it delivers? This book covers several areas on how we are rapidly moving ahead with technology without much thought to the consequences it has on our humanity- whether it is violence on screens, quick health "solutions", or stressed out lifestyles with a half dozen different contact numbers.

After reading this book, I don't think I will ever be able to look at the media and technology the same ever again. While I think a few of the issues were oversimplified, this book was also well researched and most importantly- it makes you think. Whether you agree with some of the main points or not, you will be thinking about this book long after you have finished digesting it. Think of it as a bit of balance to your ideas, to counteract with all of those commercials you've been reading and hearing your whole life.

Rating:
Summary: You could drive a mac truck through the logical gaps
Review: Don't read this book. It will confuse you into thinking that the world of technology is dangerous and emotionally painful, without every actually explaining to you how or why. The only reason I don't give it fewer stars is that it's real easy to read. The problem is, it doesn't actually say anything.
I'm doing my master's thesis on how technology effects human experience of meaning, and I was really looking forward to this book as a layman's thought-provoking look at the subject. By the time I was halfway through it, I was ready to bang my head against a wall. There's just no substance, no logical progression of thought-the whole thing is full of semi-neurotic, somewhat morbid emotional appeals (e.g. naming a section about video games "From Pingpong to Murder") and unsupported logical jumps. The author clearly passionately believes that using technology isn't "soul enriching," and that using it so much is driving us into the arms of numb, addictive distractions; he bases the whole book on those assumptions without ever making a case for why they're true.
High Tech, High Touch is constructed more like a repetitious epic poem of lamentation than it is any real discussion of anything. Long laundry lists of statements, both of facts and of melancholy poetic conjecture, which never build to any kind of analysis. Example, on p. 45:

"The most dangerous promise of technology is that it will make our children smarter. President Bill Clinton's 1996 State of the Union address proclaimed 'the Internet in every classroom' to be a noble goal. Access to information will not teach synthesis and analysis. School expenditures in information technology reached [a high number] in 1997, yet at the same time programs for music and the arts were defunded. [sic]" (p. 45)

That sounds pretty bad, right? Sure it does. But what does it actually say? It doesn't actually say that technology won't make children smarter, or what really does make them smarter. It doesn't explain why it's not noble to have the internet in classrooms. It implies that students don't analyze or synthesize information via the net, only access it, but it never supports or explains that idea (Online classes? Educational software? Email discussions with experts? Forums where other people are studying similar subjecs? How is net research different than library research r.e. analysis and synthesis?) It doesn't say how much, or where, the arts were defunded, and it implies that the arts are more "noble" than online networking but doesn't explain why. The entire book is like that.

This book is grounded in a concept that embodies an increasing psychological disconnect between two generations: those who grew up with networked technology, and those who didn't. The concept is: "If an event or interpersonal transaction doesn't take place in the physical world, it can't fundamentally benefit or fulfill you." This book assumes that and restates it dozens and dozens (and dozens) of times, but it never actually provides an argument for why we should believe it. To a lot of people who didn't grow up with technology, that statement is so intuitively, emotionally obvious that it doesn't need to be supported or explained. The problem is that, according to a great volume of current research being done with the "net generation," that concept is -not- intuitively obvious to -them-. They find personal significance, power, community, and existential meaning in the things they do online. These two different experiences of an emerging trend must -both- be acknowledged in any supposed assessment of technology's effects on human psychology or quality of life.
If you want to learn about what technology is doing to our minds, read Smartmobs or Growing Up Digital. If you want to learn about consumerism and overwork and meaning, read Your Money or Your Life. They'll show you more than poetry and fear.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Megatrends author John Naisbitt's new book (co-written by daughter Nana Naisbitt and artist Douglas Philips) is a fat book of ideas that touches upon genetics, art, media violence, time sensibilities and even South Park. Unlike most futurists, the authors make judgment calls about future timelines and inclinations. However, they agree with other futurists that full immersion virtual reality is coming, although they add that it's probably not a good thing, especially for your kids. Their compelling discussion of the genetic revolution is wide-ranging and fair-handed. Their interesting take on media violence and video games seems more controversial, evidencing a distaste that echoes the genre's most hostile opponents. Their view of modern art, which touts body part art (i.e. Piss Christ and sliced cows) but ignores the computer-driven fruition of amateur filmmaking, also seems odd. You may find yourself arguing and fighting with this very stylish, well-written book, but we [...] promise you won't be bored.