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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
It feels cruel to rate a book this low when I don’t think I’m the intended audience for it. I took great tidbits from it and have highlights, but much of the text felt tangential and the conclusion didn’t pull together for me. It reminded me of MLA writing days with the long-boxes of quoted text. After living in an APA world with very little quotations allowed, it felt clunky and disjointed. The context was great and intriguing, but the writing style was not for me.
informative
slow-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
This book was so good. All of the connections, the thoughts... Loved it.
And I just spent a whole bunch of time recording some favorite lines from the book that were worded so well... and then my review got lost so here I am saying some of them while I still remember them. We need to do nothing after a lot of doing something. It gives us clarity. There is a lack of understanding about value when it doesn't mean productivity (parks) or something can't be extracted. Attention is focus; not paying attention is disorganization. Social media profits off of our outrage and continually refreshing. Distractions keep us from doing what we want to do. Lack of context in social media... Prevents us from understanding the whole picture. We need to be able to seek and understand context. Parks existing are a form of resistance. Framing of destruction as construction (ecosystems vs dams).
And I just spent a whole bunch of time recording some favorite lines from the book that were worded so well... and then my review got lost so here I am saying some of them while I still remember them. We need to do nothing after a lot of doing something. It gives us clarity. There is a lack of understanding about value when it doesn't mean productivity (parks) or something can't be extracted. Attention is focus; not paying attention is disorganization. Social media profits off of our outrage and continually refreshing. Distractions keep us from doing what we want to do. Lack of context in social media... Prevents us from understanding the whole picture. We need to be able to seek and understand context. Parks existing are a form of resistance. Framing of destruction as construction (ecosystems vs dams).
Great ideas, terrible execution. I wanted to like this book, but the writing, while impressive, is unnecessarily verbose and over-intellectualized.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
I haven't been gobsmacked and shipwrecked by a nonfiction book like this in years. I've been embarking on an unofficial literature review of books about the dark side of social media/smart phones/ etc for a while, and that's how I came upon this one. If Digital Minimalism was a frustratingly anodyne and apolitical guide to personally protecting yourself from the overreaches of Big Tech, this book was a refreshingly clear look at the last two thousand years and how we got to this moment, and how being more present in the world requires a shift in ourselves rather than strictly regimenting our social media or screen time. I wish I could recommend this book to everyone I know - the author has an art degree from Berkeley and writes like it, which to me means that she wields her language very precisely and describes social phenomena with stunning clarity, but it's not a writing style that works for everyone and I understand that. I'm obsessed with the way the author's mind works and I can't wait to read her next book.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced