William Powers’ new book Hamlet’s Blackberry is out and the media have taken notice. The first major review of the book has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, and William made an appearance in Good Morning America recently to promote the book and the magic of disconnectedness.
The Journal review, aptly headlined “To Tweet, or not to Tweet,” apparently liked Powers’ book and he even expresses a parenthetical desire for print to be eternal. However, where Powers’ book obviously did its job was in reassuring the reviewer—and perhaps the rest of us—to try a little disconnect in our lives.
An excerpt from the Journal review:
“…. even a jaded reader is likely to be won over by Hamlet’s BlackBerry. It convincingly argues that we’ve ceded too much of our existence to what he calls Digital Maximalism. Less scold and more philosopher, Mr. Powers certainly bemoans the spread of technology in our lives, but he also offers a compelling discussion of our dependence on contraptions and of the ways in which we might free ourselves from them. I buy it. I need quiet time.“
As a reader of Hamlet’s BlackBerry (almost half way through) I, too, feel that I must try my hand at disconnect, but I have not been able to do it with the zest that author Powers has in his private life——taking “sabbaticals” from the digital world starting Friday afternoon and resuming such activities Monday morning. In my case, I am doing a little bit of disconnect rehab at a time, as in putting my iPhone on Airport mode during my runs, which allows the music to entertain me without the email beeps or phone calls interrupting that one special time of the day. Who knows? Maybe there will be weekend disconnects for me, but not yet.
For an interview with William Powers (May 3, 2010), go here.
**Mario’s posts courtesy of TheMarioBlog.