2nd Edition

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

By T.V. Reed Copyright 2019
    332 Pages
    by Routledge

    332 Pages
    by Routledge

    In chapters examining a broad range of issues—including sexuality, politics, education, race, gender relations, the environment and social protest movements—Digitized Lives 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. This second edition includes important updates on mobile and social media, examining how new platforms and devices have altered how we interact with digital technologies in an allegedly ‘post-truth’ era.

    A companion website (culturalpolitics.net/index/digital_cultures) includes links to online articles and useful websites, as well as a bibliography of offline resources, and more.

    Preface: Why Buy this Book?; Chapter 1: How Do We Make Sense of Digitizing Cultures? Some Ways of Thinking through the Culture–Technology Matrix; Chapter 2 How is the Digital World Made? The Designer/Worker/User Production Cycle; Chapter 3: What’s New About Digitized Identities? Mobile Bodies, Online Disguise, Cyberbullying and Virtual Communities; Chapter 4: Has Digital Culture Killed Privacy? Social Media, Governments and Digitized Surveillance; Chapter 5: Is Everybody Equal Online? Digitizing Gender, Ethnicity, Dis/Ability and Sexual Orientation; Chapter 6: Sexploration and/or Sexploitation? Digitizing Desire; Chapter 7: Tools for Democracy or Authoritarianism? Digitized Politics and the Post-Truth Era; Chapter 8: Are Digital Games Making Us Violent, or Will They Save the World? Virtual Play, Real Impact; Chapter 9: Are Students Getting Dumber as Their Phones Get Smarter? E-Learning, Edutainment, and the Future of Knowledge Sharing; Chapter 10: Who in the World is Online? Digital Inclusions and Exclusions; Conclusion: Will Robots and AIs Take Over the World? Hope, Hype and Possible Digitized Futures; Works Cited; Glossary; Index

    Biography

    T. V. Reed is Buchanan Distinguished Professor Emeritus 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 Present.

    "This is it: the book on meanings digital that we are waiting to use. Share it with students, friends, colleagues, family, and neighbors. It speaks both in depth but also in conversation, with that touch for communication uniquely T. V. Reed’s. Reed’s care for details that matter is crucial for collectives of all kinds, especially when drawn properly as glimpses of bigger pictures always only just emerging, working with and toward sustainability."

    —Katie King, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, College Park; Author of Networked Reenactments: Stories Transdisciplinary Knowledges Tell

    "Digitized Lives approaches a wide range of complex questions about digital media in our lives and does so with a thoughtfulness and curiosity that will keep readers engrossed page after page. Tracing the enormous impacts that digital media have on an array of topics—such as identity, equality, access, material culture, e-waste, sex, politics, games, and education—T. V. Reed’s provocative book will start meaningful conversations, intercede in important debates, and point us in new directions as digital technology continues to become a central character in our everyday lives."

    —Jason Farman, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Director of the Design Cultures & Creativity Program, University of Maryland, College Park

    "T. V. Reed’s Digitized Lives makes an important contribution to today's increasingly mediated society and culture, in which nearly every aspect of our everyday lives is touched by digital technology. This clear-eyed demystification of digital cultures’ benefits and threats functions as an indispensable guidebook for understanding the Internet today and its status as one of the most powerful communication tools of our modern age."

    —Anna Everett, Ph.D., Professor of Film & Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

    "The subjects Reed brings up should lead readers to think about and discuss the new 'digitized lives' on which we embarked just a few decades ago. This readable text and its companion website, Digital Cultures (http://www.culturalpolitics.net/digital_cultures), will be valuable for anyone interested in communication and the impact of the Internet… Summing Up: Recommended. All Readers."

    —C. L. Clements, Richland College, in CHOICE