The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection
Michael Harris, 2014
Current Hardcover
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781591846932
Summary
Every revolution in communication technology—from papyrus to the printing press to Twitter—is as much an opportunity to be drawn away from something as it is to be drawn toward something. And yet, as we embrace technology's gifts, we usually fail to consider what we're giving up in the process. Why would we bother to register the end of solitude, of ignorance, of lack? Why would we care that an absence had disappeared?
Soon enough, nobody will remember life before the Internet. What does this unavoidable fact mean?
For future generations, it won’t mean anything very obvious. They will be so immersed in online life that questions about the Internet’s basic purpose or meaning will vanish.
But those of us who have lived both with and without the crowded connectivity of online life have a rare opportunity. We can still recognize the difference between Before and After. We catch ourselves idly reaching for our phones at the bus stop. Or we notice how, mid-conversation, a fumbling friend dives into the perfect recall of Google.
In this eloquent and thought-provoking book, Michael Harris argues that amid all the changes we’re experiencing, the most interesting is the one that future generations will find hardest to grasp. That is the end of absence—the loss of lack. The daydreaming silences in our lives are filled; the burning solitudes are extinguished. There’s no true "free time" when you carry a smartphone. Today’s rarest commodity is the chance to be alone with your own thoughts.
To understand our predicament, and what we should do about it, Harris explores this "loss of lack" in chapters devoted to every corner of our lives, from sex and commerce to memory and attention span. His book is a kind of witness for the "straddle generation"—a burst of empathy for those of us who suspect that our technologies use us as much as we use them.
By placing our situation in a rich historical context, Harris helps us remember which parts of that earlier world we don’t want to lose forever. He urges us to look up—even briefly—from our screens. To remain awake to what came before. To again take pleasure in absence. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Michael Harris is a contributing editor at Vancouver magazine and Western Living. His writing has been published by Wired, Salon, Huffington Post, Globe & Mail, National Post, and The Walrus. He and has been nominated several times at the Western and National Magazine Awards. Harris lives with his partner, the artist Kenny Park, in Toronto, Canada. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
To pull away from our hyperconnected lives is painful; it is hard, and it is a muddle. Harris walks us through his particular muddle with wit, wry honesty, and compassion for the "strange suffering" of all who find themselves checking email at the dinner table.
Andrew Cleary - Christian Science Monitor
A personalized jeremiad against the state of constant distraction in which our benevolent technologies have ensnared us.... Harris' core argument...feels valid, and his prose is graceful, but as a social narrative, the book becomes repetitive and less focused.... A thoughtful addition to the bookshelf addressing the unintended consequences of a wired world.
Kirkus Reviews
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