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The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection
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.
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.
243 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2014
170 people are currently reading
4842 people want to read
About the author
Michael Harris
4 books155 followersMichael Harris is the bestselling author of The End of Absence, Solitude, and All We Want. A recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award, he is also a faculty member in the Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre and the writer of the award-winning podcast Command Line Heroes. He lives with his husband in Vancouver. MichaelJohnHarris.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 315 reviews
April 23, 2014
In praise of solitude and reverie. I had the privilege of reading this book early. Fascinating. Troubling. Insightful. Hopeful.
I read it, ironically, on a long cross country flight, underlining and making notes, loving the Wordsworth and Rilke quotations, as my 13-year-old daughter, thankfully too tired to play games on the iPad I keep trying to pry out of her fingers, slept on my lap and the woman next to me about crawled out of her skin when the battery died on her laptop and she could no longer clickety clack on her keyboard and respond to endless emails. Sending meeting memos, updates and smiley face icons from 30,000 feet as if her very life depended on it.
Some of my favorite parts:
p. 106:
"... isn't it possible that we're missing something, some pause or just a kind of breath that leads to wisdom? What was that admonishment from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke? "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
p. 41:
The amount of time it takes for a new technology to be adopted by 50 million people:
radio - 38 years
Telephone - 20 years
TV - 13 years
Web - 4 years
Facebook - 3.6 years
Twitter - 3 years
Ipad - 2 years
Google Plus - 88 days
p. 63:
Montaigne: "We must reserve a back shop, all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude"
p. 92
On Youtube and the desire for both protection and revelation:
W.H. Auden: "The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me."
p. 104:
Sobering discussion of the rule of the crowd on Wikipedia, that persistent groups can refashion knowledge and "facts" to suit their own ends with impunity and call it history. And this:
"A stunning 91 percent of Wikipedia editors were found to be men."
p. 149:
A play on what time management guru David Allen calls the "Gnawing Sense of Anxiety: - "What, I wonder, would I be capable of doing if I weren't constantly worrying about what I ought to be doing? And how content might I become if I weren't so constantly sure that the mailman has my true, far more glamorous life in that bag?"
p. 175
On seemingly "unproductive" times in life, or "arming periods, on Milton, who took a decade off after university just to read, that later infused his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, and Steve Jobs who dropped out of college and took a calligraphy course out of pure interest, that wound up influencing the beautiful typescript on Apple computers.
"When we're without a particular prescription, we're at ease to discover the things we didn't know we needed to know. Without some faith in that unknown progress, distraction preys on our fears, on our ingrained belief that something - a predator, an exciting new e-mail - requires a nervous shift in attention."
p. 211:
"Valuable memories, like great music, are as much about the things that drop away -the rest - as they are about what stays and sounds."
p. 236:
In Iceland, they have an app that allows users to bump phones to check whether they're cousins before having sex. !
p. 242
My new favorite word: "Smupid." the paradox that the easy information searching on the internet makes us feel both smarter because we know something new, and stupider, because it was almost too easy to find.''
p. 263
The greatest human achievements, Seneca says, "are the products of their seclusion."
And what is up with the Sloth Club in Japan? Really? in the culture of karoshi and overwork, there's a movement to promote slow life? Cool. That I'd like to see!
This is the blurb I wrote:
Michael Harris has written an important book for our information-overloaded times of ironic hashtag conversations and idealized online avatars. A call not only to remember an era that he calls “Before” - before the seductiveness of technology came to suck our time and attention into faster, fragmented and narrower realms of virtual experience - but to create oases of emptiness in all of the racing, restless, gulping and breathless noise of our modern lives of “After.” “The End of Absence“ is a forceful, insightful and ultimately human reminder to us all that information is not wisdom, that speed is not depth, that in the pauses of solitude come authenticity and surprise, and that the empty spaces we so desperately and busily have -sought to fill in, as he writes, never were so barren after all.
I read it, ironically, on a long cross country flight, underlining and making notes, loving the Wordsworth and Rilke quotations, as my 13-year-old daughter, thankfully too tired to play games on the iPad I keep trying to pry out of her fingers, slept on my lap and the woman next to me about crawled out of her skin when the battery died on her laptop and she could no longer clickety clack on her keyboard and respond to endless emails. Sending meeting memos, updates and smiley face icons from 30,000 feet as if her very life depended on it.
Some of my favorite parts:
p. 106:
"... isn't it possible that we're missing something, some pause or just a kind of breath that leads to wisdom? What was that admonishment from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke? "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
p. 41:
The amount of time it takes for a new technology to be adopted by 50 million people:
radio - 38 years
Telephone - 20 years
TV - 13 years
Web - 4 years
Facebook - 3.6 years
Twitter - 3 years
Ipad - 2 years
Google Plus - 88 days
p. 63:
Montaigne: "We must reserve a back shop, all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude"
p. 92
On Youtube and the desire for both protection and revelation:
W.H. Auden: "The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me."
p. 104:
Sobering discussion of the rule of the crowd on Wikipedia, that persistent groups can refashion knowledge and "facts" to suit their own ends with impunity and call it history. And this:
"A stunning 91 percent of Wikipedia editors were found to be men."
p. 149:
A play on what time management guru David Allen calls the "Gnawing Sense of Anxiety: - "What, I wonder, would I be capable of doing if I weren't constantly worrying about what I ought to be doing? And how content might I become if I weren't so constantly sure that the mailman has my true, far more glamorous life in that bag?"
p. 175
On seemingly "unproductive" times in life, or "arming periods, on Milton, who took a decade off after university just to read, that later infused his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, and Steve Jobs who dropped out of college and took a calligraphy course out of pure interest, that wound up influencing the beautiful typescript on Apple computers.
"When we're without a particular prescription, we're at ease to discover the things we didn't know we needed to know. Without some faith in that unknown progress, distraction preys on our fears, on our ingrained belief that something - a predator, an exciting new e-mail - requires a nervous shift in attention."
p. 211:
"Valuable memories, like great music, are as much about the things that drop away -the rest - as they are about what stays and sounds."
p. 236:
In Iceland, they have an app that allows users to bump phones to check whether they're cousins before having sex. !
p. 242
My new favorite word: "Smupid." the paradox that the easy information searching on the internet makes us feel both smarter because we know something new, and stupider, because it was almost too easy to find.''
p. 263
The greatest human achievements, Seneca says, "are the products of their seclusion."
And what is up with the Sloth Club in Japan? Really? in the culture of karoshi and overwork, there's a movement to promote slow life? Cool. That I'd like to see!
This is the blurb I wrote:
Michael Harris has written an important book for our information-overloaded times of ironic hashtag conversations and idealized online avatars. A call not only to remember an era that he calls “Before” - before the seductiveness of technology came to suck our time and attention into faster, fragmented and narrower realms of virtual experience - but to create oases of emptiness in all of the racing, restless, gulping and breathless noise of our modern lives of “After.” “The End of Absence“ is a forceful, insightful and ultimately human reminder to us all that information is not wisdom, that speed is not depth, that in the pauses of solitude come authenticity and surprise, and that the empty spaces we so desperately and busily have -sought to fill in, as he writes, never were so barren after all.
March 23, 2017
This is a fascinating discourse on technology versus pretechnology, the twentieth century--back when we experienced things for real. the days when we had to rely on ourselves for knowledge not our phones. Harris has researched memory and neuroscience citing studies which show what we have lost through our dependence on Google and other search engines while stating the huge advantages of such learning tools. This is the modern sequel to A Room of One's Own; as a writer needs a quiet place to write, a human needs a quiet place to be. There is something called an orienting response passed on from our ancestors. We are easily distracted by a change of light so that we are alert to danger perhaps an animal about to leap towards us. Therefore if we are in the vicinity of a media device which flashes it will get our attention. This is why we must tear ourselves away from our computer, tablet, iPod and phone at least an hour a day to read undisturbed, to walk in the great outdoors, to communicate with others face to face without a flickering light. "The spaces in our lives that technology filled in were where we stored our magic, our hope, and the longing that drove our striving souls.The flat screen detaches us from nature, it is loud and obtrusive with an artificial glare." Like the author I am thankful to remember life before the iPhone. I must add though that my wifi was not working today and with no internet, tv or Netflix, I realized how much I rely on and enjoy those medias.
August 27, 2020
I thought I did an okay job, yeah.
October 19, 2014
I am part of the last generation that will remember life without personal computing devices. Like the author, when I went to Europe the day after high school graduation, I was completely cut off from all communication from home...and it was wonderful. What have we lost with the sense of splendid isolation and lone creativity now relegated to only the intentionally remote? Why do we have to be connected at all times? How does this degrade the quality of discourse and thought? How do relationships themselves change when we are constantly updating and sharing our mundane activities? All good questions, and well covered by the author. Highly readable, well paced and highly recommended.
August 24, 2014
This is foremost an eloquently written book. It is about the internet; and by internet I mean all forms of communication with the outside world using cell phones, tablets, lab-tops and the rapidly disappearing desktop (doubtless I have over-looked some newer one but as I rapidly approach sixty this should be excusable). Like the internet, this book crosses several boundaries, and unlike the internet, overall it is erudite.
There are many basic themes the author dwells on. One is that for the time being many of us alive today remember the days before internet. For the sake of argument the author says that any of us born prior to 1985 will recall “before internet” – and those born after have been internet encapsulated. The author was born in 1980 and I can remark that in many ways I do find a gap between myself and those in their 30’s and 40’s who seem so umbilically attached to their devices.
Currently teenagers have never known life before internet, much like I always knew about TV. But the internet is much more rapid fire and it can be taken everywhere. New gadgets appear and are gobbled up with a remarkable frenzy.
Another theme discussed is the lack of solitude – or the constant pull of the internet. There is an interesting discussion that as a species we are use to multi-stimuli – to shifting focus. Our ancestors, for thousands of years, walked through the jungle, the forests, and the fields shifting focus to be aware of danger or food. The internet is a wonderful machine continually asking us and telling us to focus on different objects.
Page 125 (my book)
The internet’s constantly flashing amorphous display is an orienting response’s dreamboat.
Page 135
Distraction preys on our fears, or our ingrained belief that something – a predator, an exciting new email – requires a nervous shift in attention.
There is an examination of broadcasting. Everyone can now have an opinion. We can immortalize ourselves. We can also put up our personal lives – blogs, facebook... Teenagers have very sadly been horribly victimized by this. The author discusses one young girl (I don’t want to give her name – and there have been too many others) who committed suicide. Unfortunately many turn for solace to the only medium they know – the internet.
Page 72
We each struggle through the mesh of communication technologies we inherit – to be heard, to be cared for. And we each forget, how much care we need to take when using our seemingly benign tools; they are so useful and so sharp.
Many relationships are now formed on the internet – are we becoming more removed from real people? As the author says relationships are not just about efficient communication which is what our technologies do so well.
Many other interesting aspects are discussed with many witty passages.
Page 169
All that clicking and scrolling exploits the searching and seeking drive that served our ancestors so well.
If Wikipedia were print it would dwarf the Encylopedia Britannica.
There are many worthwhile topics in this book – and I did find enlightenment as to why I am so drawn to logging in at all hours of the day – and night (sometimes)! Some subjects appealed to me less. I like the preponderance of people reviews of movie, books, or tourist areas on the internet. I don’t have any desire, as the author does, to be constantly in touch. I had a job where there was a 7/24 on-call demand – so I feel a wonderful relief to disconnect and not feel that communication device in my pocket.
For sheer readability this is a great book!
There are many basic themes the author dwells on. One is that for the time being many of us alive today remember the days before internet. For the sake of argument the author says that any of us born prior to 1985 will recall “before internet” – and those born after have been internet encapsulated. The author was born in 1980 and I can remark that in many ways I do find a gap between myself and those in their 30’s and 40’s who seem so umbilically attached to their devices.
Currently teenagers have never known life before internet, much like I always knew about TV. But the internet is much more rapid fire and it can be taken everywhere. New gadgets appear and are gobbled up with a remarkable frenzy.
Another theme discussed is the lack of solitude – or the constant pull of the internet. There is an interesting discussion that as a species we are use to multi-stimuli – to shifting focus. Our ancestors, for thousands of years, walked through the jungle, the forests, and the fields shifting focus to be aware of danger or food. The internet is a wonderful machine continually asking us and telling us to focus on different objects.
Page 125 (my book)
The internet’s constantly flashing amorphous display is an orienting response’s dreamboat.
Page 135
Distraction preys on our fears, or our ingrained belief that something – a predator, an exciting new email – requires a nervous shift in attention.
There is an examination of broadcasting. Everyone can now have an opinion. We can immortalize ourselves. We can also put up our personal lives – blogs, facebook... Teenagers have very sadly been horribly victimized by this. The author discusses one young girl (I don’t want to give her name – and there have been too many others) who committed suicide. Unfortunately many turn for solace to the only medium they know – the internet.
Page 72
We each struggle through the mesh of communication technologies we inherit – to be heard, to be cared for. And we each forget, how much care we need to take when using our seemingly benign tools; they are so useful and so sharp.
Many relationships are now formed on the internet – are we becoming more removed from real people? As the author says relationships are not just about efficient communication which is what our technologies do so well.
Many other interesting aspects are discussed with many witty passages.
Page 169
All that clicking and scrolling exploits the searching and seeking drive that served our ancestors so well.
If Wikipedia were print it would dwarf the Encylopedia Britannica.
There are many worthwhile topics in this book – and I did find enlightenment as to why I am so drawn to logging in at all hours of the day – and night (sometimes)! Some subjects appealed to me less. I like the preponderance of people reviews of movie, books, or tourist areas on the internet. I don’t have any desire, as the author does, to be constantly in touch. I had a job where there was a 7/24 on-call demand – so I feel a wonderful relief to disconnect and not feel that communication device in my pocket.
For sheer readability this is a great book!
December 30, 2014
This is my favorite nonfiction read of the year. I constantly struggle with social media and it's effects in our lives. Some of the change is inevitable and I feel like a curmudgeon trying to fight against it. This book did a tremendous job of discussing many of the issues I think about. For example, social media has shifted the way we experience anything. The shift is so great that an event no longer feels valid unless we have taken a picture and posted it to instagram or FB. There is the constant draw to share these events and receive validation from my "friends." This book doesn't give answers to this struggle, it simply forces the reader to consider the impact of these actions. And it doesn't deal strictly with social media. The book is a meditation on technology as a whole. It states that readers born before 1985 are of the only generation who remembers life before a constant connection to the internet. Those born since then don't remember a time where you could actually disconnect. He discusses what we are losing by never allowing ourselves to disconnect; silence, random wandering thoughts, creative eureka moments, etc. This is a wonderful book. I recommend it to anyone who feels this tension between our constant state of connection and the old days where we simply were bored sometimes. I absolutely loved this one.
August 8, 2014
A great meditation on what we've lost with what we've gained. I was an early reader and I highly recommend that you unplug and give this a deep read.
And then you can plug in again.
And then you can plug in again.
September 29, 2019
I found this book simply frustrating. Harris goes to great lengths to show all that we have lost with the frantic pace of an internet-dominated world. Yet, I found this argument baffling because nothing that was part of life before the internet has disappeared. I couldn’t help but think how much more engaging this book could have been if instead of bemoaning the world that the digital natives (the generation born after the explosion of the internet) are inheriting, Harris would make the argument for ensuring that the benefits of the pre-internet world were explicitly inculcated in them. The benefits of solitude and quiet reflection do not have to be lost if we make the point of showing the next generation, or reaffirming to the current one, their worth. Instead Harris seems to take an apocalyptic tone and write a eulogy to the world as we knew it. Perhaps the most perplexing part of Harris book are the quotes he includes of previous laments against technological innovation. Are we supposed to follow Socrates and object to writing itself? Or the monastic scribes who objected to the printing press? If we are not, then the point should be to embrace the new technologies with the firm intention of maintaining the aspects of the previous culture that have served us well.
November 14, 2014
Complain complain complain complain From Amazon's page: "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."
From the page and the hype I had assumed this would be more about how to regain and cut ourselves away from constantly checking our emails and messages, and how not to be plugged in 24/7, like say Ariana Huffington's Thrive. I wasn't expecting (or wanting!) a self-help book, but this book definitely isn't quite what I thought it would be. It's not even about the "lack" of absence either. It's really a much too long piece where the author focuses mainly on the negatives of technology today. A Goodreads review says it's like a too long blog post and that's not a bad summary.
To be fair Harris does a great job in exploring some of the dark side of the internet and technology. For example, he writes in depth of a young woman named Amanda Todd who was goaded into nude picture and videos (as an underage teenager) by an adult man. Harris traces her story as she becomes the subject of bullying, both online and off. Eventually she commits suicide, but not before uploading a YouTube video talking about her harassment and what she had been going through. Harris meets with Amanda's mother, who even requests she see the piece he's writing, because she is still her daughter and the mother wants to protect Amanda as much as she can, even in death.
But Harris doesn't do much to offer SOLUTIONS or looking at what technology has given us. Yes, it leads to cyberbullying, but it also has given us a democratization of technology. Yes, Wikipedia can sometimes be inaccurate or slanted. But it also is a MUCH cheaper resource than buying a set of encyclopedias. Yeah, Yelp can sometimes make or break a business. But it can also be a way for a smaller business to get word about itself out there and it can also help consumers make informed choices, when you sort through the reviews obviously written by the owners or their friends.
Harris isn't wrong, but this book isn't really about reclaiming anything or exploring what it is to reclaim. This is going right back to the library. Can't recommend it. Read a few chapters before deciding to buy or borrow.
From the page and the hype I had assumed this would be more about how to regain and cut ourselves away from constantly checking our emails and messages, and how not to be plugged in 24/7, like say Ariana Huffington's Thrive. I wasn't expecting (or wanting!) a self-help book, but this book definitely isn't quite what I thought it would be. It's not even about the "lack" of absence either. It's really a much too long piece where the author focuses mainly on the negatives of technology today. A Goodreads review says it's like a too long blog post and that's not a bad summary.
To be fair Harris does a great job in exploring some of the dark side of the internet and technology. For example, he writes in depth of a young woman named Amanda Todd who was goaded into nude picture and videos (as an underage teenager) by an adult man. Harris traces her story as she becomes the subject of bullying, both online and off. Eventually she commits suicide, but not before uploading a YouTube video talking about her harassment and what she had been going through. Harris meets with Amanda's mother, who even requests she see the piece he's writing, because she is still her daughter and the mother wants to protect Amanda as much as she can, even in death.
But Harris doesn't do much to offer SOLUTIONS or looking at what technology has given us. Yes, it leads to cyberbullying, but it also has given us a democratization of technology. Yes, Wikipedia can sometimes be inaccurate or slanted. But it also is a MUCH cheaper resource than buying a set of encyclopedias. Yeah, Yelp can sometimes make or break a business. But it can also be a way for a smaller business to get word about itself out there and it can also help consumers make informed choices, when you sort through the reviews obviously written by the owners or their friends.
Harris isn't wrong, but this book isn't really about reclaiming anything or exploring what it is to reclaim. This is going right back to the library. Can't recommend it. Read a few chapters before deciding to buy or borrow.
November 15, 2014
The author began with a wonderful thesis that technology and the near constant connection to the Internet has profoundly changed our lives. The author began to argue that absence and boredom provided value to us and, as a result of technology and the Internet, we are losing this part of our lives. I found the first chapter engaging and I wanted the author to dive into this subject but I was tremendously disappointed. After the first chapter, the author lost focus and re-framed the discussion from the thesis to anything that was related to the Internet or his personal life. I only wish Mr. Harris would have been able to follow his thesis and continue to pursue the question of what we lost with the end of absence.
February 26, 2022
Truly appalling how much garbage and half-baked ideas you have to wade through to get to any point he's trying to make. Repetitive and uncritical; comes to the same conclusion as every other two-bit Internet philosopher aka tech does not have ethics, it is what you make of it and we need to use it deliberately etc. etc.. Unfortunately I am being forced to attend a Q&A session with him so I'm now deeply regretting borrowing this from the library instead of buying it second hand, at least then I could burn it down during the Zoom meeting.
July 9, 2014
Advance Reading Copy review Publication date 8/7/2014
The End of Absence is the author's exploration of how the Internet and endless connectivity are changing our lives in terms of social interaction and personal quiet time. It is not a "how to disconnect" guide or a cranky criticism of the loss of techno-innocence. It is simply one man trying to capture this fleeting moment in history when people who remember a time without the Internet have to share the planet with those that have only known super-connectivity.
It is a thought-provoking book and a bit of a comfort for someone like myself who hasn't yet been submerged in the deep end of smart-phones, apps and texting as the preferred method of communication. Trying to find a balance between connection and dis-connection gets more difficult with each new gadget and social pressure builds to join the latest social media. At least I am not single, as the chapter on online dating and yenta services was truly frightening. The glossary of terms was a bit of a shock as I knew less than 20% of them, further confirming that I am getting increasingly out of touch. However, Michael Harris lets me know that it is okay to be apart from the crowd, so long as I'm not completely cutting myself off from the human race. As long as we can get our work done and still be invited to social gatherings, we should be okay. We don't need to be connected every minute of every day and hopefully the new generations will come to realize this as well.
The End of Absence is the author's exploration of how the Internet and endless connectivity are changing our lives in terms of social interaction and personal quiet time. It is not a "how to disconnect" guide or a cranky criticism of the loss of techno-innocence. It is simply one man trying to capture this fleeting moment in history when people who remember a time without the Internet have to share the planet with those that have only known super-connectivity.
It is a thought-provoking book and a bit of a comfort for someone like myself who hasn't yet been submerged in the deep end of smart-phones, apps and texting as the preferred method of communication. Trying to find a balance between connection and dis-connection gets more difficult with each new gadget and social pressure builds to join the latest social media. At least I am not single, as the chapter on online dating and yenta services was truly frightening. The glossary of terms was a bit of a shock as I knew less than 20% of them, further confirming that I am getting increasingly out of touch. However, Michael Harris lets me know that it is okay to be apart from the crowd, so long as I'm not completely cutting myself off from the human race. As long as we can get our work done and still be invited to social gatherings, we should be okay. We don't need to be connected every minute of every day and hopefully the new generations will come to realize this as well.
March 5, 2015
An excellent, thought-provoking, and highly-readable analysis of how constant connection to all our digital devices and technology has not only rewired the neuroplasty of our brains, but also has eliminated "lack" (not knowing something and having to manually learn about it, increasing our knowledge and understanding) and "absence" (solitude, quiet, and peace, all of which are necessary to critically think, to plan, to dream, to innovate, to create, and to reflect on ourselves and life in a meaningful way) for all but a very few of us who are aware of the inherent dangers and who have and are taking steps not to lose these two most precious gifts (lack and absence) that produce growth, change and maturity in humanity.
I've written a multi-series review of the book on my blog about dementias and Alzheimer's Disease, because all of this constant connection is producing a lifestyle dementia, with many of the behaviors and symptoms mirroring those of other kinds of dementias.
http://goinggentleintothatgoodnight.c...
http://goinggentleintothatgoodnight.c...
Sadly, this is a dementia we are choosing by our lifestyle of having to be constantly connected to a virtual world. It's not too late to do something about it, but I doubt anyone is really going to listen to Harris or to me because the lure of that virtual - and fundamentally dishonest - reality is stronger than the honest and fact-based warnings we are giving. Very sad, but inevitable.
I've written a multi-series review of the book on my blog about dementias and Alzheimer's Disease, because all of this constant connection is producing a lifestyle dementia, with many of the behaviors and symptoms mirroring those of other kinds of dementias.
http://goinggentleintothatgoodnight.c...
http://goinggentleintothatgoodnight.c...
Sadly, this is a dementia we are choosing by our lifestyle of having to be constantly connected to a virtual world. It's not too late to do something about it, but I doubt anyone is really going to listen to Harris or to me because the lure of that virtual - and fundamentally dishonest - reality is stronger than the honest and fact-based warnings we are giving. Very sad, but inevitable.
October 14, 2014
I'm glad I read this book, however it required my powering through about the first third. This is essentially a longer version of a kind of think piece that's been doing the rounds for a while now and sometimes suffers for it. Opening with a short story about an isolated tribe of indigenous people who don't know the magic of cellphones etc, for example.
BUT
Harris does indeed take advantage of a book's greater wordcount to find some additional depth to the issue of absence. I think he has a very interesting premise - one that, full disclosure, I find a bit flattering as I sit firmly in the demographic he's aiming it at. The idea of what a transitional generation can learn about the era we're stepping into, can perhaps put down in some medium that will survive for digital natives and beyond, is one worth exploring.
I'd say, if it intrigues you, give this book a shot. It's a very breezy read and best considered a kind of light, course opener on the subject. Personally, I look forward to stepping from this text to some weightier explorations.
BUT
Harris does indeed take advantage of a book's greater wordcount to find some additional depth to the issue of absence. I think he has a very interesting premise - one that, full disclosure, I find a bit flattering as I sit firmly in the demographic he's aiming it at. The idea of what a transitional generation can learn about the era we're stepping into, can perhaps put down in some medium that will survive for digital natives and beyond, is one worth exploring.
I'd say, if it intrigues you, give this book a shot. It's a very breezy read and best considered a kind of light, course opener on the subject. Personally, I look forward to stepping from this text to some weightier explorations.
August 4, 2020
This is an interesting read during the COVID-19 pandemic, replete with a few unintentionally arresting lines from its 2015 publication — a reference to 2012 Pew Research data where by 2020, 60 percent of respondents expected higher education to be conducted by hybrid or distance learning, and closing the book with what the author sees as the interconnectivity and authentically connected slowness of Chinese people traveling by train far and wide to see one another for the Lunar New Year (I gasped reading this in August 2020), an event that a few years later surely accelerated a new type of “absence” and reliance upon technology for conducting the business of humanity outside the scope of this book.
This author brings in literature, science, and lived experience to show that relying upon constant online distraction to feed our brains and souls is toxic and changing the nature of how we think, or shall we say think less, and seek increasing stimuli as humans. I agree with his basic thesis and yet it has grown more complicated in an age of physical interconnectivity and online-to-political conspiracy that has created a world that, without technology, is life in a tyranny of absence. Not absence for thinking and creativity, but absence creating depression and further cementing poverty through generations that will be left further behind. I wish he would write another edition of this book, for trivial reasons like a chapter on the bullshit that is Zoom calls (please!) and also to see what has happened to his opinions and research trajectory now that the world depends on technology to keep people apart, so fewer might die.
This author brings in literature, science, and lived experience to show that relying upon constant online distraction to feed our brains and souls is toxic and changing the nature of how we think, or shall we say think less, and seek increasing stimuli as humans. I agree with his basic thesis and yet it has grown more complicated in an age of physical interconnectivity and online-to-political conspiracy that has created a world that, without technology, is life in a tyranny of absence. Not absence for thinking and creativity, but absence creating depression and further cementing poverty through generations that will be left further behind. I wish he would write another edition of this book, for trivial reasons like a chapter on the bullshit that is Zoom calls (please!) and also to see what has happened to his opinions and research trajectory now that the world depends on technology to keep people apart, so fewer might die.
March 25, 2022
I loved parts of this book. The insights about our growing distrust for expertise and the rise in misrepresentation were fascinating, as were comments on how our constant connection can lead to greater distraction or the sense that something better is out there waiting to be discovered. I found these parts of the book especially poignant because they have only become more accurate in the time that has elapsed since its publication.
What brings this down for me is the author’s tone. I could have done without the repeated condescending and pretentious prescriptions about Millennials and future generations. The stereotype of an entire group being a slave to their devices is tired and lacks nuance, in my opinion. Had Harris scrapped these sections, I think the book as a whole would have benefited.
What brings this down for me is the author’s tone. I could have done without the repeated condescending and pretentious prescriptions about Millennials and future generations. The stereotype of an entire group being a slave to their devices is tired and lacks nuance, in my opinion. Had Harris scrapped these sections, I think the book as a whole would have benefited.
November 25, 2014
An exploration of the effects of the Internet (and related mobile devices) on our society and psyches, this book is at once interesting and frustrating. I think the author brings up a lot of good issues, and I can't deny that the Internet has been yet another blow to our collective attentions spans and critical thinking skills, but I felt like he missed the forest for the trees--too much focus on particular apps or websites (like Timehop and Grindr) at the expense of the bigger picture. For example, I wondered how his critiques of the Internet, and insistence that people born before it became widespread are some unique "straddle generation," fit in with the greater dialogue (going on since at least the 1950s) about the supposed ill effects of the colonization of society by other forms of mass communication and entertainment. (He touches on a few examples, but I didn't feel like any real connections were made.)
Personally, I am more interested in that bigger picture, and see many of the problems that the author describes (basically, letting new technologies take over your life instead of enrich your life) are symptoms rather than root causes. My perspective is probably different for several reasons: one, that I do not work in journalism or another field that has been strongly affected by the Internet. Two, I am older than the author (I can actually remember life, not only before the Internet, but before cable TV, video rentals, Walkmans, home computers and home gaming systems--yes, I mean the era of foil-covered "rabbit ears" perched atop the TV to ensure we could get all three channels!), and honestly, it was not that great. Also, MTV came along when I was in high school, and believe me, you can waste hour after hour in an electronic stupor without the Internet! And three, obviously I have a different temperament, because I am the sort of person who has more fun going for a long hike, taking a yoga class or reading a book than checking my email.
So for me, the Internet has been almost entirely positive--since I mostly check out sites related to my real-life hobbies (such as birding, reading, cooking), I find that going on-line usually inspires me to log off and pursue what I really love within an hour or so. For example, I find a mention of a book that sounds really interesting, see that it's available on Kindle, and within ten minutes, I've brewed a cup of tea and am ready to start reading. Or--which just happened today--I check my email, get a birding alert that people have seen a rare bird in my local park, and wish I could grab my binoculars and run over there ASAP. The author clearly has a very different temperament--granted, one that seems to be quite common--which makes him prone to obsessing over his on-line connections, and while I feel for him, after a while, this book seemed to be mostly about his personal issues.
P.S.: "Absence" hasn't gone anywhere. If you don't believe me, check out Richard Louv's The Nature Principle for some inspiration. And for God's sake, your computer has an "off" button for a reason!
Personally, I am more interested in that bigger picture, and see many of the problems that the author describes (basically, letting new technologies take over your life instead of enrich your life) are symptoms rather than root causes. My perspective is probably different for several reasons: one, that I do not work in journalism or another field that has been strongly affected by the Internet. Two, I am older than the author (I can actually remember life, not only before the Internet, but before cable TV, video rentals, Walkmans, home computers and home gaming systems--yes, I mean the era of foil-covered "rabbit ears" perched atop the TV to ensure we could get all three channels!), and honestly, it was not that great. Also, MTV came along when I was in high school, and believe me, you can waste hour after hour in an electronic stupor without the Internet! And three, obviously I have a different temperament, because I am the sort of person who has more fun going for a long hike, taking a yoga class or reading a book than checking my email.
So for me, the Internet has been almost entirely positive--since I mostly check out sites related to my real-life hobbies (such as birding, reading, cooking), I find that going on-line usually inspires me to log off and pursue what I really love within an hour or so. For example, I find a mention of a book that sounds really interesting, see that it's available on Kindle, and within ten minutes, I've brewed a cup of tea and am ready to start reading. Or--which just happened today--I check my email, get a birding alert that people have seen a rare bird in my local park, and wish I could grab my binoculars and run over there ASAP. The author clearly has a very different temperament--granted, one that seems to be quite common--which makes him prone to obsessing over his on-line connections, and while I feel for him, after a while, this book seemed to be mostly about his personal issues.
P.S.: "Absence" hasn't gone anywhere. If you don't believe me, check out Richard Louv's The Nature Principle for some inspiration. And for God's sake, your computer has an "off" button for a reason!
February 7, 2017
This is a really interesting look at a particular moment in time, as viewed by a particular generation of people (that includes me): those born before 1985, but who now find the internet part of their everyday lives, whether it's through email or social media or texting. We are the generation that can remember a time when we didn't have these things, and yet are now happily consumed by those things while simultaneously saying we hate it. I really enjoyed the book, and he had some great examples and statistics, and there's a hilarious chapter where he decides he's going to read War and Peace, and documents how many times in the first three pages he reaches for his phone because he's bored. In another chapter he takes a forced email holiday for a month and discusses how difficult it is. He talks about how dating has fundamentally changed the face of romance when instant gratification is a Tinder swipe away.
There's no advice for anything we are meant to do with this information, it's more of a description of the times we live in now. He doesn't exactly say anything new, but instead allows us to step back and look at what he's discussing and see ourselves in those descriptions. As long as you're aware of how much time you're online, as long as you know that it's pulling you away from things, and also, as long as you — ironically in the case of this book — are reading books, you're giving yourself a sense of moderation and staying aware of the fact you can't go down that rabbit hole. I really enjoyed the book, and think it's one that anyone from this particular generation — who remember what it was like to live with the absence of constant communication while now craving it — should read. This isn't a vilification of life online, but just a warning that you can let it take over.
There's no advice for anything we are meant to do with this information, it's more of a description of the times we live in now. He doesn't exactly say anything new, but instead allows us to step back and look at what he's discussing and see ourselves in those descriptions. As long as you're aware of how much time you're online, as long as you know that it's pulling you away from things, and also, as long as you — ironically in the case of this book — are reading books, you're giving yourself a sense of moderation and staying aware of the fact you can't go down that rabbit hole. I really enjoyed the book, and think it's one that anyone from this particular generation — who remember what it was like to live with the absence of constant communication while now craving it — should read. This isn't a vilification of life online, but just a warning that you can let it take over.
July 6, 2014
The reflections of the only generation who will know life with and without the internet, this waxes (but also wanes) poetic. There are some lovely reflections in here about the absences we have lost in our lives: the quiet times, the idle daydreaming, the time away from loved ones. And Michael Harris hasn't written some screed about these losses proposing unlikely projects to reverse them. He accepts them with the kind of melancholic awareness that we reserve for those things we can never reclaim. We mourn their passing, but move on with life.
But, there are just one too many sociological interruptions into his more lyrical moments, which I guess were needed for "relevance". Or in a nod to the hard sciences. So not as perfect as it could have been but still close.
Also posting on Twitter and Tumblr.
But, there are just one too many sociological interruptions into his more lyrical moments, which I guess were needed for "relevance". Or in a nod to the hard sciences. So not as perfect as it could have been but still close.
Also posting on Twitter and Tumblr.
October 5, 2015
I picked this up from the "new arrivals" shelf at my local library and it turned out to be exactly what I needed right now. There are so many parts I could quote, but I'll hold back and instead just offer my wholehearted recommendation to those who, like me, are part of the in-between generation that remembers and occasionally longs for the time before the internet took over our everyday lives. Michael Harris doesn't advocate for or against technology, but ultimately cautions us that "every technology will alienate you from some part of your life. That is its job. Your job is to notice. First notice the difference. And then, every time, choose."
September 11, 2014
I really wanted to like this book, to embrace its message wholeheartedly, but I found it a bit too much of Chicken Little crossed with get-off-my-lawn. Maybe my world is small, but I'm not seeing over-absorbed kids attached to their tiny computers, never climbing trees or exploring the world. I don't find it that hard to detach from online life and be in a moment. Obviously, reading books isn't a problem for me. It felt like Harris wanted to universalize problems that really were just personal.
Many thanks to Goodreads for a free ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
Many thanks to Goodreads for a free ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
January 10, 2017
This book was terribly written. The author says/warns us that it's just his musings, and yes, that is true. But I found it way too random and train-of-thought. I'm not sure why this exists as a book instead of as a collection of blog posts.
If you're interested in the subject matter, I suggest Carr's The Shallows. It's better organized AND he includes enough of his own, well-written, coherent musings that you get both sides of the picture (musings and scientific facts/perspectives/information).
If you're interested in the subject matter, I suggest Carr's The Shallows. It's better organized AND he includes enough of his own, well-written, coherent musings that you get both sides of the picture (musings and scientific facts/perspectives/information).
August 19, 2014
This book is a lovely, thoughtful meditation about what has been lost, and can never be regained in the current technological world. Contrary to the title, the author does not offer suggestions about how to reclaim absence; rather, this book is almost an elegy to simpler times. I think older readers - as the author says, those born before 1985, who have lived as adults in a world without the internet -- will enjoy this book most, though it is a bit poignant.
November 1, 2014
I've talked about, recommended and pulled parts of this book away to think more about since finishing it only a couple days ago -
why? Perhaps because it was for me a winning combination of a seemingly sincere journalistic rather than highbrow examination of ideas with a candid, even droll memoir - to me an irresistible pairing perfect for the subject matter !
why? Perhaps because it was for me a winning combination of a seemingly sincere journalistic rather than highbrow examination of ideas with a candid, even droll memoir - to me an irresistible pairing perfect for the subject matter !
July 28, 2021
Kind of book that after I read I gave the copy away and told that person to read and give away. And I've purchased a few copies for other people. Most books I hoard, I wanted to share this with everyone
January 31, 2015
Technology is ubiquitous. Take a conscious break every so often. Live a real rather than virtual life.
November 4, 2014
Absence
There is a point in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where the author arrives to a city, and says something to the effect of “I could tell I was closer to a city because the houses were closer together and the people were farther apart.” There is something similar going on with our smartphones, people.
The End of Absence is a mix of a semi-scientific analysis of the benefits of absence and what we are losing as people in the shift to a digital world embedded into the story of how the author lived a month without the internet. Interesting in that the book allows us to critically and skeptically examine what we’ve lost with our constant connectivity (and its effects on mental state of being), constant superficial connectedness (and its implications on emotions, sexual relationships and intimacy), and the constant access to the wealth of knowledge (and its effects on our mental abilities and the notion of what constitutes knowledge).
Interesting (and terrifying in some instances findings), “techno-brain burnout” provides dopamine, cortisol and adrenaline initially, yet over the long term has some very negative effects (impaired cognition, depression, and oh yeah, it can change your underlying brain structure). Oh, and if a child is exposed to more than 2 hours of screen time a day there are higher levels of behavioral disorders as an adolescent and adult (so, the electronic babysitter used to excess will damage your kid’s future, easy for me to say since I don’t have kids maybe, but, to people who you see in a diner allowing the kids to be huddled into a screen during a family meal, seriously? Reform school is expensive.) The digital native generation is statically showing less empathy and more narcissism than previous generations (so maybe selfies are actually the downfall of humankind after all Hogan. Look I’m admitting you may be right, hashtag things you would know if you read these damn reviews.) In light of such a dynamic shift, you would think we’d pause and reflect instead of just being lulled by the glow of the screens. Both as an adult, its effect on you, but also for our responsibility as screens change how we raise children.
There’s no going back (unless there’s a solar storm of course, but there’s only a 95% chance of that happening within the next two centuries but hopefully not during our time right?), nor really should there be, but there is harnessing all this technology for the good. There is heightening the choice and examining both the cost, not just the benefit, for plugging in. It’s self-aware living with the screens, and there is no reason to think this need be a relic of the past. In order to make informed choices about how and when and how much to use technology, thereby utilizing it for its maximum potential, we need to critically examine it. As the gap generation, the one generation who remembers life before and after the internet as tech-savvy participants, we have a unique opportunity to define some norms and advocate for some of the good ol’ ways in the digital age.
Here’s another, random thought, if I had 799 “followers” as a 17 year old kid because I look good in selfies, would I have been as inclined to read books? A couple random adult voices just aren’t as instantly gratifying nor as convincing. 799 instant ways to refute the notion that what matters is your grey matter, not how you look. Take that boring teacher! PS, I just unfollowed you Eric J, read some damn books and stop wasting your time on Instagram.
This book is basically an individual examination of a couple of experiments of tech vacation (the previously mentioned month free of technology, reading War and Peace), rather than a large scale examination of the effects of the end of absence and the dawn of the technological age. It would have been interesting to examine the effects on family dynamics, the educational system, our notion of childhood, and poverty in areas where the shift occurs but that is perhaps the task of another kind of book.
Quotes
Dr. Gary Small, a researcher at UCLA, writes that “once people get used to this state [checking the phone for constant updates] they tend to thrive on the perpetual connectivity. It feeds their egos and sense of self-worth, and it becomes irresistible…in the short run the stress hormones [cortisol and adrenaline] boost energy levels and augment memory, but over time they actually impair cognition, lead to depression, and alter the neural circuitry in the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex – the brain regions that control mood and thought. Chronic and prolonged techno-brain burnout can even reshape the underlying brain structure. 10
For decades after the printing press’ invention in 1450, the press produced only a quantitative chance (more books)…by contrast, we are immediately experiencing a qualitative difference in our lives…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. 14
As we embrace a technology’s gifts, we usually fail to consider what they ask from us in return – the subtle, hardly noticeable payments we make in exchange for their marvelous service. We don’t notice, for example, that the gaps in our schedules have disappeared because we’re too busy delighting in the amusements that fill them. We forget the games that childhood boredom forged because boredom itself has been outlawed. 14
What will we carry forward? What worthy things might we thoughtlessly leave behind? 15
Seen in a prudential light, our circumstances are a tremendous gift. If we’re the last people in history to know life before the Internet, we are also the only ones who will ever speak, as it were, both languages. We are the only fluent translators of Before and After. 16
Internet usage has expanded 566% in the past decade…the sheer volume of time we devote to our devices means we each are carving “expendable” hours away from other parts of our lives. We rationalize the interruptions that our phones and tablets demand – each checking of e-mail or scanning of YouTube is, after all, just a momentary concession. But it adds up. 19
In our rush toward the promise of reduced ignorance and reduced loneliness – we feel certain we are rushing toward a better life. We forget the myriad accommodations we made along the way. 24
When multi-tasking is accounted for, the media consumption rate among youths rises to a total of ten hours and 45 minutes each day. Five years earlier, that number sat at eight hours and 33 minutes; five years before that, it was seven hours and 29 minutes. 28
When we don’t want to be alone and yet don’t want the hassle that fellow human represent either, the digital filter is an ideal compromise…The smartphone is itself a far, far safer friend than a messy, unpredictable human. Far less frightening to deal with and less likey to suffer from mood swings or halitosis. 29
Sherry Turkle, the director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, documents hundreds of interviews with children who have bonded with robots and other technologies in her book Alone Together. She pains a compelling picture of an emerging population more at ease with technologies than with one another. The phone is easy, people are hard. 30
A University of Michigan metastudy released in the summer of 2010 compiled data from 72 studies conducted between 1979 and 2009, all geared toward monitoring levels of empathy among American college students; the metastudy found that today’s youths were scoring 40% lower than their earlier counterparts. Meanwhile, a 2013 metastudy out of San Diego University demonstrated increased levels of narcissism among youths. 30
No two generations in history have experienced such a highlighted cognitive dissonance, because never has change occurred at so rapid a pace. Look at the rate of penetration – the amount of time it takes for a new technology to be adopted by fifty million people. Radio 38, telephone 22, TV 13. The World Wide Web took four years, Facebook 3.6, ipad 2, Google Plus, which nobody even finds useful, took only 88 days to be adopted by fifty million. The rate of technology absorption is stunning. 31
Young brains, immersed in a dozen hours of screen time a day, may be more equipped to deal with digital reality than with the decidedly less flashy reality reality that makes up our dirty, sometimes boring, often quiet, material world. 38
I fear that we are the last of the daydreamers. I fear our children will lose lack, lose absence, and never comprehend its quiet, immeasurable value. If the next generation socializes more online than in the so-called real world…the internet becomes the “real world” and our physical reality becomes the thing that needs to be defined and set aside – “my analog life,” “my snail life,” “my empty life.” 48
“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.” –Kierkegaard
Researchers found that cyberbullying produced slightly more suicidal thoughts…22% physically bullied versus 28% bullied online. 53
In reality, life outside of orderly institutions like schools, jobs, and prisons is lacking in “gold star” moments…but publish your experiences online and an institutional approval system rises to meet it – your photo is “liked,” your status is gilded with commentary…this furthers our enjoyable sense of an ordered life. We become consistent, we are approved, we are a known and sanctioned quantity. 69
One recent survey of three thousand British parents confirmed this position when it found that the top three job aspirations of children today are sportsman, pop star, and actor. Twenty-five years ago, the top three aspirations were teacher, banker, and doctor. 69
Eventually the information you’re dealing with absolutely feels more personalized; it confirms your beliefs, your biases, your experiences. And it does this to the detriment of your personal evolution. Personalization – the glorification of your own taste, your own opinion – can be deadly to real learning. 91
Peter Riely, a scientist at Predictive Science in San Diego, published an article in Space Weather in 2012 stating that such a storm [solar flare that would destroy all electrical systems on earth for, quite some time, let’s say a decade before complete rebuild] are about 12%. That’s a one in eight chance of a massive digital dismantling. If that doesn’t happen soon, it’ll happen eventually. Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering has pegged the chance of a Carrington-type event within the next two centuries at about a 95% probability. 107
In fact it’s those who think they’re good at multitasking who are the least productive when they multitask. The brain itself is not, whatever we may like to believe, a multitasking device…The world multitask is a misnomer. There is rapid-shifting minitasking, there is lame-spams-of-effort-tasking, but there is, alas, no such thing as multitasking. 119
Babies who watch television in particular end up more likely to have attention deficit problems when they reach school age. It’s pretty obvious: If you spend time with a flickering, flashing thing, it may leave the brain expecting that kind of stimulation…we found that whenever kids exceed the one to two hours of recreational screen time a day the AAA recommends, levels of attention issues do go up an awful lot. 121
It is the idea of formation, memorizing something literally informs your mind. It creates neural pathways, yes? You literally internalize it, download something into your brain. You are programming yourself…Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. And I believe that memorizing something is sowing of a thought. 159
Comparison of the two shows post-internet teenagers were actually having less physical sex than their pre-internet peers. 174
Technology is neither good nor evil. The most we can say about it is this: It has come. Casting judgments on the technologies themselves is like casting judgment on a bowl of pudding. We can only judge, only really profit from judging, the decisions we each make in our interactions with those technologies. How shall we live now? How will you? 200
We have decades of studies showing that our psychological state, too, responds well to a little solitude. Rural settings enhance mental faculties and check the aggressive, neurotic tendencies we foster when we never get out on our own. The spaces in our lives that technologies filled in were never such barren places after all. 204
“It is necessary to combine two things, solitude and the crowd, and to have recourse to them alternately: the former will make us long for people, the latter for ourselves, and the one will be a cure for the other: our distaste for the crowd will be cured by solitude, our boredom with solitude by the crowd.” Seneca 204
There is a point in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where the author arrives to a city, and says something to the effect of “I could tell I was closer to a city because the houses were closer together and the people were farther apart.” There is something similar going on with our smartphones, people.
The End of Absence is a mix of a semi-scientific analysis of the benefits of absence and what we are losing as people in the shift to a digital world embedded into the story of how the author lived a month without the internet. Interesting in that the book allows us to critically and skeptically examine what we’ve lost with our constant connectivity (and its effects on mental state of being), constant superficial connectedness (and its implications on emotions, sexual relationships and intimacy), and the constant access to the wealth of knowledge (and its effects on our mental abilities and the notion of what constitutes knowledge).
Interesting (and terrifying in some instances findings), “techno-brain burnout” provides dopamine, cortisol and adrenaline initially, yet over the long term has some very negative effects (impaired cognition, depression, and oh yeah, it can change your underlying brain structure). Oh, and if a child is exposed to more than 2 hours of screen time a day there are higher levels of behavioral disorders as an adolescent and adult (so, the electronic babysitter used to excess will damage your kid’s future, easy for me to say since I don’t have kids maybe, but, to people who you see in a diner allowing the kids to be huddled into a screen during a family meal, seriously? Reform school is expensive.) The digital native generation is statically showing less empathy and more narcissism than previous generations (so maybe selfies are actually the downfall of humankind after all Hogan. Look I’m admitting you may be right, hashtag things you would know if you read these damn reviews.) In light of such a dynamic shift, you would think we’d pause and reflect instead of just being lulled by the glow of the screens. Both as an adult, its effect on you, but also for our responsibility as screens change how we raise children.
There’s no going back (unless there’s a solar storm of course, but there’s only a 95% chance of that happening within the next two centuries but hopefully not during our time right?), nor really should there be, but there is harnessing all this technology for the good. There is heightening the choice and examining both the cost, not just the benefit, for plugging in. It’s self-aware living with the screens, and there is no reason to think this need be a relic of the past. In order to make informed choices about how and when and how much to use technology, thereby utilizing it for its maximum potential, we need to critically examine it. As the gap generation, the one generation who remembers life before and after the internet as tech-savvy participants, we have a unique opportunity to define some norms and advocate for some of the good ol’ ways in the digital age.
Here’s another, random thought, if I had 799 “followers” as a 17 year old kid because I look good in selfies, would I have been as inclined to read books? A couple random adult voices just aren’t as instantly gratifying nor as convincing. 799 instant ways to refute the notion that what matters is your grey matter, not how you look. Take that boring teacher! PS, I just unfollowed you Eric J, read some damn books and stop wasting your time on Instagram.
This book is basically an individual examination of a couple of experiments of tech vacation (the previously mentioned month free of technology, reading War and Peace), rather than a large scale examination of the effects of the end of absence and the dawn of the technological age. It would have been interesting to examine the effects on family dynamics, the educational system, our notion of childhood, and poverty in areas where the shift occurs but that is perhaps the task of another kind of book.
Quotes
Dr. Gary Small, a researcher at UCLA, writes that “once people get used to this state [checking the phone for constant updates] they tend to thrive on the perpetual connectivity. It feeds their egos and sense of self-worth, and it becomes irresistible…in the short run the stress hormones [cortisol and adrenaline] boost energy levels and augment memory, but over time they actually impair cognition, lead to depression, and alter the neural circuitry in the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex – the brain regions that control mood and thought. Chronic and prolonged techno-brain burnout can even reshape the underlying brain structure. 10
For decades after the printing press’ invention in 1450, the press produced only a quantitative chance (more books)…by contrast, we are immediately experiencing a qualitative difference in our lives…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. 14
As we embrace a technology’s gifts, we usually fail to consider what they ask from us in return – the subtle, hardly noticeable payments we make in exchange for their marvelous service. We don’t notice, for example, that the gaps in our schedules have disappeared because we’re too busy delighting in the amusements that fill them. We forget the games that childhood boredom forged because boredom itself has been outlawed. 14
What will we carry forward? What worthy things might we thoughtlessly leave behind? 15
Seen in a prudential light, our circumstances are a tremendous gift. If we’re the last people in history to know life before the Internet, we are also the only ones who will ever speak, as it were, both languages. We are the only fluent translators of Before and After. 16
Internet usage has expanded 566% in the past decade…the sheer volume of time we devote to our devices means we each are carving “expendable” hours away from other parts of our lives. We rationalize the interruptions that our phones and tablets demand – each checking of e-mail or scanning of YouTube is, after all, just a momentary concession. But it adds up. 19
In our rush toward the promise of reduced ignorance and reduced loneliness – we feel certain we are rushing toward a better life. We forget the myriad accommodations we made along the way. 24
When multi-tasking is accounted for, the media consumption rate among youths rises to a total of ten hours and 45 minutes each day. Five years earlier, that number sat at eight hours and 33 minutes; five years before that, it was seven hours and 29 minutes. 28
When we don’t want to be alone and yet don’t want the hassle that fellow human represent either, the digital filter is an ideal compromise…The smartphone is itself a far, far safer friend than a messy, unpredictable human. Far less frightening to deal with and less likey to suffer from mood swings or halitosis. 29
Sherry Turkle, the director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, documents hundreds of interviews with children who have bonded with robots and other technologies in her book Alone Together. She pains a compelling picture of an emerging population more at ease with technologies than with one another. The phone is easy, people are hard. 30
A University of Michigan metastudy released in the summer of 2010 compiled data from 72 studies conducted between 1979 and 2009, all geared toward monitoring levels of empathy among American college students; the metastudy found that today’s youths were scoring 40% lower than their earlier counterparts. Meanwhile, a 2013 metastudy out of San Diego University demonstrated increased levels of narcissism among youths. 30
No two generations in history have experienced such a highlighted cognitive dissonance, because never has change occurred at so rapid a pace. Look at the rate of penetration – the amount of time it takes for a new technology to be adopted by fifty million people. Radio 38, telephone 22, TV 13. The World Wide Web took four years, Facebook 3.6, ipad 2, Google Plus, which nobody even finds useful, took only 88 days to be adopted by fifty million. The rate of technology absorption is stunning. 31
Young brains, immersed in a dozen hours of screen time a day, may be more equipped to deal with digital reality than with the decidedly less flashy reality reality that makes up our dirty, sometimes boring, often quiet, material world. 38
I fear that we are the last of the daydreamers. I fear our children will lose lack, lose absence, and never comprehend its quiet, immeasurable value. If the next generation socializes more online than in the so-called real world…the internet becomes the “real world” and our physical reality becomes the thing that needs to be defined and set aside – “my analog life,” “my snail life,” “my empty life.” 48
“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.” –Kierkegaard
Researchers found that cyberbullying produced slightly more suicidal thoughts…22% physically bullied versus 28% bullied online. 53
In reality, life outside of orderly institutions like schools, jobs, and prisons is lacking in “gold star” moments…but publish your experiences online and an institutional approval system rises to meet it – your photo is “liked,” your status is gilded with commentary…this furthers our enjoyable sense of an ordered life. We become consistent, we are approved, we are a known and sanctioned quantity. 69
One recent survey of three thousand British parents confirmed this position when it found that the top three job aspirations of children today are sportsman, pop star, and actor. Twenty-five years ago, the top three aspirations were teacher, banker, and doctor. 69
Eventually the information you’re dealing with absolutely feels more personalized; it confirms your beliefs, your biases, your experiences. And it does this to the detriment of your personal evolution. Personalization – the glorification of your own taste, your own opinion – can be deadly to real learning. 91
Peter Riely, a scientist at Predictive Science in San Diego, published an article in Space Weather in 2012 stating that such a storm [solar flare that would destroy all electrical systems on earth for, quite some time, let’s say a decade before complete rebuild] are about 12%. That’s a one in eight chance of a massive digital dismantling. If that doesn’t happen soon, it’ll happen eventually. Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering has pegged the chance of a Carrington-type event within the next two centuries at about a 95% probability. 107
In fact it’s those who think they’re good at multitasking who are the least productive when they multitask. The brain itself is not, whatever we may like to believe, a multitasking device…The world multitask is a misnomer. There is rapid-shifting minitasking, there is lame-spams-of-effort-tasking, but there is, alas, no such thing as multitasking. 119
Babies who watch television in particular end up more likely to have attention deficit problems when they reach school age. It’s pretty obvious: If you spend time with a flickering, flashing thing, it may leave the brain expecting that kind of stimulation…we found that whenever kids exceed the one to two hours of recreational screen time a day the AAA recommends, levels of attention issues do go up an awful lot. 121
It is the idea of formation, memorizing something literally informs your mind. It creates neural pathways, yes? You literally internalize it, download something into your brain. You are programming yourself…Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. And I believe that memorizing something is sowing of a thought. 159
Comparison of the two shows post-internet teenagers were actually having less physical sex than their pre-internet peers. 174
Technology is neither good nor evil. The most we can say about it is this: It has come. Casting judgments on the technologies themselves is like casting judgment on a bowl of pudding. We can only judge, only really profit from judging, the decisions we each make in our interactions with those technologies. How shall we live now? How will you? 200
We have decades of studies showing that our psychological state, too, responds well to a little solitude. Rural settings enhance mental faculties and check the aggressive, neurotic tendencies we foster when we never get out on our own. The spaces in our lives that technologies filled in were never such barren places after all. 204
“It is necessary to combine two things, solitude and the crowd, and to have recourse to them alternately: the former will make us long for people, the latter for ourselves, and the one will be a cure for the other: our distaste for the crowd will be cured by solitude, our boredom with solitude by the crowd.” Seneca 204
November 18, 2024
Now here's a book that embodies serious thought and requires serious reading. It's striking to remember that some of us (those old enough to remember before 1990) are of the transitional generation -- the last remaining people -- who remember a world before the internet and what life was like without the possibility of constant connectivity. As I was reading this book, I came across an image of New Yorkers riding the subway in the 1970s and in the 2010s. In the earlier photo, there were those in conversation with others, many reading newspapers, some sitting with their eyes closed, and others just staring off into space. In the later photo, everyone has their heads turned down, gazing into their phones. No one is talking to anyone, and no one is "just sitting" there, daydreaming.
Of course, Harris tells us that his concern about a world without "absence" led him to research this book and that while doing so, a common response he'd get from others was that he was a "Luddite." I think it interesting that the term "Luddite" has come to represent anyone who is "anti-technology" but the real Luddites were socialist revolutionaries, a group of textile workers, who fought against draconian pay cuts, child labor, and unfair laws that eroded their rights. They were not fighting against technology; they were fighting for fair treatment at the hands of the manufacturing elite. They were pro-people.
Harris reminds us that while all of us use and rely upon our digital technology, it has consequences that we should not ignore and perhaps take some measures to set aside some time for "absence". He writes: "Easy fixes are for easy problems, And what do real problems, big problems, call for? Experimentation and play. So here's a pseudoprescription: Give yourself permission to go without some weekend -- without any of the screens you look at when you're bored. (Yes, you'll feel anxious, at loose ends, but then what?) Ask yourself what might come from all those silences you've been filling up. What if you told your five-year-old the Internet was closed for Christmas vacation? What if you told yourself that?
Experiment. Live a little. And remember that fear of absence is the surest sign that absence is direly needed."
Harris uses brain science to bolster hid thesis, and indeed, since this book was published in 2014 the science has become even more robust and clear. We need time to disconnect, for solitude. For non-virtual relationship. I'll be taking one day a week off from screens and plan for a week away sometime soon!
Of course, Harris tells us that his concern about a world without "absence" led him to research this book and that while doing so, a common response he'd get from others was that he was a "Luddite." I think it interesting that the term "Luddite" has come to represent anyone who is "anti-technology" but the real Luddites were socialist revolutionaries, a group of textile workers, who fought against draconian pay cuts, child labor, and unfair laws that eroded their rights. They were not fighting against technology; they were fighting for fair treatment at the hands of the manufacturing elite. They were pro-people.
Harris reminds us that while all of us use and rely upon our digital technology, it has consequences that we should not ignore and perhaps take some measures to set aside some time for "absence". He writes: "Easy fixes are for easy problems, And what do real problems, big problems, call for? Experimentation and play. So here's a pseudoprescription: Give yourself permission to go without some weekend -- without any of the screens you look at when you're bored. (Yes, you'll feel anxious, at loose ends, but then what?) Ask yourself what might come from all those silences you've been filling up. What if you told your five-year-old the Internet was closed for Christmas vacation? What if you told yourself that?
Experiment. Live a little. And remember that fear of absence is the surest sign that absence is direly needed."
Harris uses brain science to bolster hid thesis, and indeed, since this book was published in 2014 the science has become even more robust and clear. We need time to disconnect, for solitude. For non-virtual relationship. I'll be taking one day a week off from screens and plan for a week away sometime soon!
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May 4, 2022Read this for work lol. It was highly readable, didn’t feel like homework at all. I did feel it was a little sensationalist at times, but that was certainly part of its appeal. I had a chance to hear Harris speak about this book on a zoom discussion this spring. I was in the Toronto Reference Library, just finished with some archival work. I had spent the morning flipping through a colonial land surveyor’s notebook from the 18th century, and quickly stepped out to stuff my face with pizza and returned to the library to catch the zoom discussion. It was definitely worth hearing him speak about this book because he did sort of explain why the book had this sensationalist quality to it that I couldn’t quite place before. I think there are certain things trade publishers and their editors push for, which made the book come out the way it did. Even still, it felt very easy to read, and I went through it in surprising time. Harris sort of confessed that he was a bit of a technological determinist, and self-identified as a Marxist, which I did not quite pick up when reading the book, but in hindsight it does make sense. He doesn’t have a huge amount of hope for human agency, but perhaps at the push from his editor does propose some actions to consider for engaging with digital technology more critically. E.g. checking email and messages only once or twice a day. He makes dating apps sound so depressing. Maybe my favourite part was Harris describing his very real struggle trying to read Tolstoy while taking a month-long break away from the internet. Not sure how much I’m going to actually do to fix my bad habits regarding internet technology after reading this, but it’s worth reading Luddite scolds every so often to keep things in order.
March 10, 2018
Unlike the follow-up book 'Solitude', which is clearly a rushed-off piece of work solely to fulfill a contract, 'The End Of Absence' is a thoughtful perambulation around the issue of what it is to be someone born in the few years before 1985, who have lived as adults both with and without the ubiquitous presence of the internet. It's sceptical rather than cynical, and combines discursion about neuroscience (especially recent experiments re neuroplasticity) with interviews of people running dopamine-spiking internet services in which Harris is able to capture their words and paradigms of thought. He discusses Thoreau, but he's no angry Thoreauan - his gentle conclusion is that one should keep a sufficiently self-aware step of remove from technology, but not abandon it; we have all been subsumed by now whether we like it or not. His perspective throughout is sweetly personal and sweetly queer, which is refreshing for a book on the subject of human-technology interaction. It manages to never be maddening, and to often be charming. It's a worthwhile read.
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