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

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Routledge, Jun 5, 2014 - Social Science - 258 pages

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 chapters examining a broad range of issues—including sexuality, politics, education, race, gender relations, the environment, and social protest movements—Digitized Lives seeks answers to these central questions: What is truly new about so-called "new media," and what is just hype? How have our lives been made better or worse by digital communication technologies? In what ways can these devices and practices contribute to a richer cultural landscape and a more sustainable society?

Cutting through the vast—and often contradictory—literature on these topics, Reed avoids both techno-hype and techno-pessimism, offering instead succinct, witty and insightful discussions 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 just world.

Companion website available at: culturalpolitics.net/digital_cultures

 

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Does Technology Make Us More than We Make Technology?
Components of Digital Culture Analysis
Terminal Confusion?
How is the Digital World Made?
Who Are We Online? Digital Masquerade Privacy Anonymity
Is Everybody Equal Online? Digitizing Gender Ethnicity
Is the Internet Colorblind? ERacializations
Who is DisAbled by Cyberspaces? Enabling and Disabling
Digitizing Desire? Sexploration andor Sexploitation
Does the Internet Have a Political Bias? EDemocracy
Are Digital Games Making Us Violent and Sex Crazed or Will
Are Kids Getting Dumber as Their Phones Get Smarter?
Who in the World is Online? Digital Inclusions and Exclusions
Hype Hope and Possible Digitized Futures

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About the author (2014)

T. V. Reed is Buchanan Distinguished Professor of American Studies and English at Washington State University. He is the author of The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle.

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