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Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection 1St Edition
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A rousing call to action for those who would be citizens of the world―online and off.
We live in an age of connection, one that is accelerated by the Internet. This increasingly ubiquitous, immensely powerful technology often leads us to assume that as the number of people online grows, it inevitably leads to a smaller, more cosmopolitan world. We’ll understand more, we think. We’ll know more. We’ll engage more and share more with people from other cultures. In reality, it is easier to ship bottles of water from Fiji to Atlanta than it is to get news from Tokyo to New York.In Rewire, media scholar and activist Ethan Zuckerman explains why the technological ability to communicate with someone does not inevitably lead to increased human connection. At the most basic level, our human tendency to “flock together” means that most of our interactions, online or off, are with a small set of people with whom we have much in common. In examining this fundamental tendency, Zuckerman draws on his own work as well as the latest research in psychology and sociology to consider technology’s role in disconnecting ourselves from the rest of the world.
For those who seek a wider picture―a picture now critical for survival in an age of global economic crises and pandemics―Zuckerman highlights the challenges, and the headway already made, in truly connecting people across cultures. From voracious xenophiles eager to explore other countries to bridge figures who are able to connect one culture to another, people are at the center of his vision for a true kind of cosmopolitanism. And it is people who will shape a new approach to existing technologies, and perhaps invent some new ones, that embrace translation, cross-cultural inspiration, and the search for new, serendipitous experiences.
Rich with Zuckerman’s personal experience and wisdom, Rewire offers a map of the social, technical, and policy innovations needed to more tightly connect the world.
- ISBN-100393082830
- ISBN-13978-0393082838
- Edition1St Edition
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateJune 17, 2013
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
- Print length288 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
― Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus and Here Comes Everybody
"A compelling account of an intertwined global world, Ethan Zuckerman’s Rewire makes you fall in love with a wide range of cultural practices and peoples. As he explains the importance of understanding not just how information flows but also how people connect, he lays a foundation for rethinking what global citizenship can and should be."
― danah boyd, Microsoft Research
"Weaving a rich tapestry of stories, data, and theories, Rewire challenges many of our core assumptions about globalization and connectedness and how the Internet affects us. It is a book well worth reading."
― Yochai Benkler, author of The Penguin and the Leviathan and The Wealth of Networks
"No one is in a better position than MIT and Harvard’s Ethan Zuckerman to confront the Internet’s failure to connect us across cultures. Zuckerman’s astounding range, careful reasoning, and superb storytelling make Rewire an essential and urgent read."
― David Weinberger, author of Too Big to Know
"Ethan Zuckerman is the real deal, a thinker and activist brilliantly connected to what’s really happening on the Internet on a genuinely global basis. For those who think the digital era gives them all the information they need, Rewire shows them how much more there is to learn."
― Craig Newmark, founder, craigslist and craigconnects
"One of our most important books on globalization."
― Steve O’Keefe, New York Journal of Books
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; 1St Edition (June 17, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393082830
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393082838
- Item Weight : 1.33 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,535,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #706 in Digital Design (Books)
- #1,789 in Media Studies (Books)
- #2,314 in Social Aspects of Technology
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"Rewire" is a fascinating read that coalesces Zuckerman's passions, including Africa and the developing world, the attention paid to and consumption of media focused on global issues, the expansion of individual voice through social media, among others. His purpose in writing the book is to elevate the importance of living dual lives, as citizens of nations and citizens of the world. His belief is that those with a practical, literate understanding of global issues and cultures ("cosmopolitans") will yield, to keep it simple, a better world. In a tightly organized but highly readable fashion, he advocates for an alternative mindset around media consumption and engagement to solve a core problem of our "connected age", a paradox: that while it is easier than ever to share information from across the world, the manifold lenses through we which we access and view the world - Twitter, newspapers, television, people - have become narrower. Similarly, we are less open to "serendipitous" encounters that may foster new learnings and cross-cultural understanding. It's terribly interesting.
While Zuckerman's argument is interspersed with stories of other's research, case studies, and examples, at times they seem self-aggrandizing. In many cases, he knows the individuals involved and worked with them at some point in his life (the introduction of the book invites the reader to join he and his friends in realizing a "rewired" world). He clearly values their insights, but on occasion the names become muddled. On the whole, they support his argument if they have not outright informed his argument.
As a newcomer to books such as these, I'm sure there are more thoughtful counter-arguments to what Zuckerman proposes. For myself, the core question I have is whether or not he overstates the importance of the examples he presents. He argues that people have a tendency to care more about what's immediate to them and around them. Additionally, what's already like them (homophily). I spend quite a bit of my time working in a severely disinvested city where many of its residents are experiencing extreme poverty and isolation, lack of safety, and other social pathologies. I can't help but think that the issues experienced individually in neighborhoods like what I've described have more pressing matters to attend to, if they have adequate resources and access to the "connectors", those who can provide guidance and curation to other cultures and information. At what level is participation possible as opposed to trickle-down beneficiary of a more caring world? Of course, the book arcs at a high-level, so more practical-oriented questions aren't addressed.
Overall, as a call to engage, the book is inspiring and enjoyable. Sure, there are holes to poke but at its core the book is fundamentally about one thing: the possibility of a better connected world and better outcomes for people across the globe. If that also interests you, you will enjoy Zuckerman's idealism.
Top reviews from other countries
Ethan Zuckerman states that he reads newspaper a lot and you can see that in his writing. He writes a lot of stories and facts without stopping and looking at them more deeply, just the same way the newspaper operates. Newspaper will never give its readers something to think about deeply, rather it gives you fancy facts that you will forget after one hour and obviously the person who reads newspaper a lot will produce the same kind of content.
Another thing that I did not like is that he author assumes right of the bat that a more cosmopolitan perspective on things or a more cosmopolitan news environment is something inherently good. He does not really argue about it or talks about it in a great length, why it is good or why it is beneficial for us to know that happens in another country or in another part of the word, he just believes that.