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Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now (2013)

by Douglas Rushkoff(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1591844762 (ISBN13: 9781591844761)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Current Hardcover

review 1: Reading "Present Shock" I couldn't escape the sense that Rushkoff is preaching to the choir -- not only with the ideas he espouses, but the way he espouses them. Take this sentence: "An op-ed in the New York Times may as well be a column on the Huffington Post, which may as well be a personal blog or a Twitter stream." It's a fairly trivial statement in the course of the book. What matters is that Rushkoff writes this as if anyone reading will naturally agree or understand -- but I don't. What the hell is Rushkoff talking about?At times this choir-preaching can work beautifully, like when Rushkoff questions the worth of the singularity considering humanity's subtle and quirky complexities. Generally, it's vague, and accompanied by too much labored winking (ending a paragra... moreph about education with the zinger "All children left behind," a paragraph about automobile companies with the zinger "Screech"). Rushkoff is better at getting us to contemplate than he is at getting us to agree, but ultimately the latter is his goal, which is why "Present Shock" doesn't quite succeed.
review 2: "Life, Inc." by Douglas Rushkoff may be the best book I have read by a living author. Based on that alone, I bought and read "Present Shock".Rushkoff examines four facets of life in the digitized twenty-first century. I was halfway through reading about the second, digiphrenia, when I began to understand the first, narrative collapse. There is no narrative to Present Shock. This stands in contrast to Life, Inc. which was an historical narrative. What this book is, is a collection of observations, analysis and opinions. In other words, it is a smart person whining. Another person here at Goodreads gave up on the book in that chapter, but it was Rushkoff, so I persevered.It was during the chapter on Fractalnoia that I comprehended what "The Short Forever" is. Each moment of our lives we bear the entire history on humankind on our shoulders and its entire destiny up until the mass extinction as well. We know that because we have access to Wikipedia on our hand-held devices. Atlas shrugged. What can the rest of us do?I labored on to the end. I can do that because I am retired and disabled so I have not much else to do. I got to the last sentence and Rushkoff thanked me.There I was, like Adam in the Garden of Eden, with an apple core in my hand. I knew that I had eaten something delicious, but I didn't feel the least bit satisfied. If you want satisfaction, read a different book. less

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