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The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2015WINNER OF THE JERWOOD PRIZEONE OF WIRED's NON-FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADEWe spend more time than ever online, and the digital revolution is rewiring our sense of what it means to be human. Smartphones let us live in one another's pockets, while websites advertise our spare rooms all across the world. Never before have we been so connected. Increasingly we are coaxed from the three-dimensional world around us and into the wonders of a fourth dimension, a world of digitised experiences in which we can project our idealised selves. But what does it feel like to live in constant connectivity? What new pleases and anxieties are emerging with our exposure to this networked world? How is the relationship to our bodies changing as we head deeper into digital life? Most importantly, how do we exist in public with these recoded inner lives, and how do we preserve our old ideas of isolation, disappearance and privacy on a Google-mapped planet?
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 18, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
May 21, 2016
You are no doubt reading this on a screen, most likely some sort of tablet or phone, but it could be on a computer. This constant interaction with the 1’s and 0’s of the digital world is starting to have an effect on our own lives, as we are drawn into a world of constant connection, information at your fingertips and 24 hour communication. Scott calls this new persona, the four dimensional human, and in this book considers the ways that this influx of digital consciousness will affect us. Some of his subjects include the private and public faces that we show online, how the digital sphere is affecting us and our thought processes and the perils on our sanity with a constant stream of news.
It was an interesting book in lots of ways, almost everything we do these days has some sort of interaction with a computer or screen, and Scoot has made a good attempt to try and see what sort of human being we will become with the constant digital feeds in our lives. The first part of the book dragged a little, but thankfully picked up in the last half where he gave a number of examples on social media and his own experiences on it as well as illustrations from the film and fiction worlds. Overall good, and it would be a subject worth re-visiting again in five years or so with my children’s generation who have only know this world.
It was an interesting book in lots of ways, almost everything we do these days has some sort of interaction with a computer or screen, and Scoot has made a good attempt to try and see what sort of human being we will become with the constant digital feeds in our lives. The first part of the book dragged a little, but thankfully picked up in the last half where he gave a number of examples on social media and his own experiences on it as well as illustrations from the film and fiction worlds. Overall good, and it would be a subject worth re-visiting again in five years or so with my children’s generation who have only know this world.
July 6, 2015
This is a difficult book to write about and very hard to describe. It's basically a study of how 'networked life', ie 24/7 connection to the internet and social media and the ability to constantly communicate across almost all physical borders, has transformed the human experience, and what that means for us. But it's a sprawling sort of book that goes in loads of different directions, rather than presenting a single argument. If this sounds a bit incoherent, it sometimes can be, yet Scott's writing is so beautiful it barely matters. It's an academic thesis written like a novel. Pop culture references are woven in very naturally and nothing about it feels gimmicky. I'm not a big non-fiction reader, but this really grabbed me.
(Possibly to be continued/expanded later)
(Possibly to be continued/expanded later)
January 31, 2017
The Four-Dimensional Human invites us to think about how digitization has changed our lives. It's not a book about dooms-day warnings of how technology will ruin us, but rather, gently nudges us to think about what it means to be connected to the cloud at all times. What does it mean for our sense of a body, when we are constantly "bodiless" on the net? What meanings do space and place have, when I can be where you are with the click of a button or a swipe on a screen?
Scott's writing style combines a strong background in literature with metaphorical language and anecdotes into a narrative that is engaging, witty, and recognizable. It's not an academic work, nor is it, in my opinion, truly a work of "popular non-fiction". It's straddled somewhere in between, in a comfortable and confident way.
Scott's writing style combines a strong background in literature with metaphorical language and anecdotes into a narrative that is engaging, witty, and recognizable. It's not an academic work, nor is it, in my opinion, truly a work of "popular non-fiction". It's straddled somewhere in between, in a comfortable and confident way.
July 13, 2016
I recieved a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. It's been a few months & I've made many attempts to reach the end but have finally had to admit defeat, this book really isn't for me.
A non-fiction book written in highly styled prose is an interesting concept, but such a book needs to retain the essential elements of expertise or insight & I just didn't find that here.
Great read for style, but sadly the content was just not to my taste.
A non-fiction book written in highly styled prose is an interesting concept, but such a book needs to retain the essential elements of expertise or insight & I just didn't find that here.
Great read for style, but sadly the content was just not to my taste.
March 5, 2016
The introduction alone is worth the price of admission.
I feel like sometimes he gets a little carried away in his grand and super verbose similes and references, but then he'll turn around and slap you with beautiful insights.
It's such a pleasure to read about our modern, connected lives without it sounding like your grand mother is disappointed in you.
I feel like sometimes he gets a little carried away in his grand and super verbose similes and references, but then he'll turn around and slap you with beautiful insights.
It's such a pleasure to read about our modern, connected lives without it sounding like your grand mother is disappointed in you.
January 29, 2020
I came across 'The Four-Dimensional Human' while browsing a relatively unfamiliar branch library. I'm easily convinced to read non-fiction dissecting our digital world and its effects. In this instance, Scott examines various different dimensions of the experience of pervasive digital connectedness. It's worth noting that he is a lecturer in English and creative writing, so the references are largely drawn from literature. (As an aside, since becoming a university lecturer my respect for that title has dropped to near zero. I no longer assume that just because someone lectures in a subject, they know a lot about it. After all, I have to lecture on topics I have only a limited grasp of! More senior lecturers than I presumably have actual expertise, though.) These literary comparisons are both a strength and a weakness of the book. The points being made can be vague and diffuse, verging at times into meaninglessness, but are all very elegantly expressed. My overall feeling was that I'd prefer greater substance. I recall most of Scott's arguments being made more effectively in Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. Nonetheless, the book kept my interest and conveys certain sensations central to digital life very well. For example:
While this is hardly a new insight, I liked how he put it. Inevitably, I found the treatment of current digital technology as a sort of natural condition of life, rather than a manifestation of the path taken by 21st century capitalism, slightly frustrating. The meandering chapters were, however, pleasant to read and certainly included elements I and doubtless many others could recognise:
Although it didn't give me anything particularly new to think about, 'The Four-Dimensional Human' was written with nuance in a pleasing style. It also features another example of the baffling fascination with analysing The Dark Knight Rises displayed by David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy and Slavoj Žižek's Trouble in Paradise: From the End of History to the End of Capitalism. Look, I enjoyed it in the cinema, but the plot and themes were a mess! Graeber at least admits that it was disappointing. I really don't understand why cultural theorists look to this film specifically for insight into the postmodern condition. There's much more of that to be found in the Fast & Furious movies, in my opinion.
The collision of these two stories is just one example of how, in an age of constant information, we must daily reconcile two scales of tragedy: the personal and the planetary. The digital age supplies us with a steady exposure to two infinities of horror, the universe of sorrow contained in individual loss, and the vast dread of our collective undoing. [...] This collision of scale threatens us with a loss of proportion, a precondition for a culture of panic.
While this is hardly a new insight, I liked how he put it. Inevitably, I found the treatment of current digital technology as a sort of natural condition of life, rather than a manifestation of the path taken by 21st century capitalism, slightly frustrating. The meandering chapters were, however, pleasant to read and certainly included elements I and doubtless many others could recognise:
...Nevertheless there is a strong and widespread feeling that our relationship with technology has to be managed as a sort of chronic problem. Simultaneously we are rightly enamoured with all the ease and enrichment they provide. The four-dimensional human thus regularly experiences two types of breathlessness. The first is due to the thrill of roving over the world, of dropping in on a sibling and their baby on another continent, of staying for five minutes and laughing the whole time, then swooping back into your skin. The second breathlessness is not cheerful, and arises in the moments when all this liberty seems to come at the price of its opposite, when the sum of digital life feels more like a cage than a flying carpet. The ongoing narrative of toxicity and depression that shadows digital progress, in conjunction with a sense that this progress is both for the best and inevitable, creates a pervasive atmosphere of claustrophobia.
Although it didn't give me anything particularly new to think about, 'The Four-Dimensional Human' was written with nuance in a pleasing style. It also features another example of the baffling fascination with analysing The Dark Knight Rises displayed by David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy and Slavoj Žižek's Trouble in Paradise: From the End of History to the End of Capitalism. Look, I enjoyed it in the cinema, but the plot and themes were a mess! Graeber at least admits that it was disappointing. I really don't understand why cultural theorists look to this film specifically for insight into the postmodern condition. There's much more of that to be found in the Fast & Furious movies, in my opinion.
May 25, 2017
Talk about 'waxy.' This Scott dude can certainly stretch an idea. He argues, semi-convincingly, that digital devices and social media are the 4th dimension. We're somewhere else when we're really here. Or vice versa or something.
“Social media…makes a moment four-dimensional by scaffolding it with simultaneity, such that it exists in multiple places at once” (xv). But he also gives an example of writing a postcard doing the same thing, so isn’t it *any* distraction removing you from the present?
The text is devoid of non-self reference; I've not read an author so entirely consumed by himself and his own thoughts since, maybe, Henry David Thoreau. Scott seems to only make comparisons to his own experiences. It’s a great book – if you're in his family. DNF'd.
Though this isn't one of them, you can find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal.
“Social media…makes a moment four-dimensional by scaffolding it with simultaneity, such that it exists in multiple places at once” (xv). But he also gives an example of writing a postcard doing the same thing, so isn’t it *any* distraction removing you from the present?
The text is devoid of non-self reference; I've not read an author so entirely consumed by himself and his own thoughts since, maybe, Henry David Thoreau. Scott seems to only make comparisons to his own experiences. It’s a great book – if you're in his family. DNF'd.
Though this isn't one of them, you can find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal.
December 3, 2015
As a piece of philosophical and critical writing this book has its flaws. As a piece of entertaining commentary on daily digital interaction it is hugely effective. Scott adopts a fairly systematic approach early on. He reminisces about some piece of pop culture trivia or literary moment and then finds a way to use it as a metaphorical entry into the changing themes of his study. He zips along from tennis, to Oscar Wilde, via 80s children's TV and a late (and ineffective) use of the desert as spiritual and geographical analogue for the emptiness of modern digital existence. Whilst this tactic is repetitive once you notice it, it remains an entertaining and often hilarious way to examine the mediated situation we find ourselves in.
Also as a Gothic scholar I enjoy Scott's own approach to the Internet as an inherently spooky place. I'd recommend the book for anyone with any interest in digital humanities, contemporary philosophy. It is heavily weighted towards a literary analysis of the Internet, and this is no bad thing. But if you are looking for a detailed, technical examination of human/digital interaction then this is not the book for you. Scott paints with very broad strokes, but he creates a hugely enjoyable, and consistently non-judgemental vision of our overly-technologised present.
Also as a Gothic scholar I enjoy Scott's own approach to the Internet as an inherently spooky place. I'd recommend the book for anyone with any interest in digital humanities, contemporary philosophy. It is heavily weighted towards a literary analysis of the Internet, and this is no bad thing. But if you are looking for a detailed, technical examination of human/digital interaction then this is not the book for you. Scott paints with very broad strokes, but he creates a hugely enjoyable, and consistently non-judgemental vision of our overly-technologised present.
January 12, 2018
Scott deeply understands the internet, and wastes few words on empty ideas, and covers vast ground accessible from his Comparative Literature PhD and broad artistic interests. Carefully choose descriptive words and obscure yet appropriate metaphors and examples, this book often sent me to google for erudition, and never wasted my curiosity.
Best moments are countless, including: Duschamps’ Toilet. Timescales as Porn. Proust. Dorian Grey. Flatland, and several personal brushes with death.
I couldn't read this book without a 4D world, because so much context I didn't know. Also it's better on an ereader; so many quotes and comments and ideas to keep track of.
Exhibit A on why academic study of English is valuable is Intensely challenging read, and I am unable to Justice to it in any short review. Through making parallels in our shared deep knowledge of things Internet, Scott taught me our rich heritage of literary and artistic gold. This book may be timeless, a precious time capsule of this literary century and the generation that came of age just as the internet and mobile were born.
Best moments are countless, including: Duschamps’ Toilet. Timescales as Porn. Proust. Dorian Grey. Flatland, and several personal brushes with death.
I couldn't read this book without a 4D world, because so much context I didn't know. Also it's better on an ereader; so many quotes and comments and ideas to keep track of.
Exhibit A on why academic study of English is valuable is Intensely challenging read, and I am unable to Justice to it in any short review. Through making parallels in our shared deep knowledge of things Internet, Scott taught me our rich heritage of literary and artistic gold. This book may be timeless, a precious time capsule of this literary century and the generation that came of age just as the internet and mobile were born.
Read
March 1, 2017Abandoned at p.61. A subject with real potential smothered by cloying, infra-De Botton cod philosophising (very infra-De Botton - none of his icy-but-perfectly-judged-superciliousness, rather scratching at the edges of the subject with poorly timed aperçus). Given the subject matter - how are we negotiating, physically and emotionally, our increasing loss of corporeality - it might have been worth persisting with. But then again, perhaps not. And live really is too short for not-very-good books.
May 18, 2017
Although some of these ideas are interesting and everything is well written, the author just crams together separate & unrelated topics in a continuous stretchy metaphor.
March 12, 2022
I appreciate the effort that Mr. Scott went to in writing his book—a book which, in his terms, "deals with the unfolding present"—to avoid giving it over to the Demon of Melodramatic Prophecies. Rather than arguing for what we should and should not bother concern ourselves with, or sketching out the contours of a "way of being in the digital world" that wouldn't pique that diabolical interest, Scott has here produced two hundred pages of highly stylised prose that don't say anything much at all. In the first page or two he suggests, justifiably, that the digital world we enter through our screens constitutes a "fourth dimension" overlaying the three we're used to. Then he waxes nauseatingly lyrical on the idea, filling enough pages to make up a decent novel (or a powerful and important reframing of the relationship between the world and the economy).
Unfortunately, and perhaps thanks to Scott's commendable efforts, The Four-Dimensional Human avoids melodrama and plunges directly into meaninglessness. His rigorous effort not to say anything bad about our brave new digitised reality meets his inability to say anything good that isn't either questionable or trivially obvious, and reduces his text to nothing more than a cloyingly well-read recapitulation of the status quo. This entire book feels like a lengthy cliffhanger: just over this next page, you keep telling yourself, he'll say something new, insightful, or meaningful.
And then it just... ends.
Unfortunately, and perhaps thanks to Scott's commendable efforts, The Four-Dimensional Human avoids melodrama and plunges directly into meaninglessness. His rigorous effort not to say anything bad about our brave new digitised reality meets his inability to say anything good that isn't either questionable or trivially obvious, and reduces his text to nothing more than a cloyingly well-read recapitulation of the status quo. This entire book feels like a lengthy cliffhanger: just over this next page, you keep telling yourself, he'll say something new, insightful, or meaningful.
And then it just... ends.
February 8, 2018
I very much enjoyed reading this book, but whenever I talk about it, I feel the need to reserve myself. The Four-Dimensional Human explores the ways in which digital networks have changed our ways of living and being in the world-- a highly worthwhile subject, imho. Laurence Scott uses the pop academic's medley of sociological, mythological, literary, and crit. theoretical lenses to examine our modern fascinations and to subsume our behaviors into conceptual frameworks, all snugly fitted into his rollicking prose. He treats his subject with a commendably refreshing lightness of touch: he's sad without dourness, hopeful without zealotry: his analytical discussion is suffused with a gentle mood that only on occasion approaches melodrama. My beef with The Four-Dimensional Human, and with books of its kind, is that sometimes the desire to understand our behaviors-- to analyze, typify, and conceptualize-- eclipses the behaviors themselves. This work contains plenty under-supported theories and intuitive leaps, and that disappoints me, as I feel the topic (really, "how do we live well, given the circumstances?") merits the best our thought has to offer. I understand the limits of the genre, and I also understand that enthusiasm and market pressure encourage us to jump to conclusions. It's enthusiasm that would lead me to gush over The Four-Dimensional Human's relevance and timeliness, but when I think, instead, about the depth and prescience of Umberto Eco's Chronicles of a Liquid Society, which deals with similar topics, I know that we can do much better.
August 18, 2017
Scott deeply understands the internet, and wastes few words on empty ideas, and covers vast ground accessible from his Comparative Literature PhD and broad artistic interests. Carefully choose descriptive words and obscure yet appropriate metaphors and examples, this book often sent me to google for erudition, and never wasted my curiosity.
Best moments are countless, including: Duschamps’ Toilet. Timescales as Porn. Proust. Dorian Grey. Flatland, and several personal brushes with death.
I couldn't read this book without a 4D world, because so much context I didn't know. Also it's better on an ereader; so many quotes and comments and ideas to keep track of.
Exhibit A on why academic study of English is valuable is Intensely challenging read, and I am unable to Justice to it in any short review. Through making parallels in our shared deep knowledge of things Internet, Scott taught me our rich heritage of literary and artistic gold. This book may be timeless, a precious time capsule of this literary century and the generation that came of age just as the internet and mobile were born.
Best moments are countless, including: Duschamps’ Toilet. Timescales as Porn. Proust. Dorian Grey. Flatland, and several personal brushes with death.
I couldn't read this book without a 4D world, because so much context I didn't know. Also it's better on an ereader; so many quotes and comments and ideas to keep track of.
Exhibit A on why academic study of English is valuable is Intensely challenging read, and I am unable to Justice to it in any short review. Through making parallels in our shared deep knowledge of things Internet, Scott taught me our rich heritage of literary and artistic gold. This book may be timeless, a precious time capsule of this literary century and the generation that came of age just as the internet and mobile were born.
August 1, 2017
يستحق هذا الكتاب نجمة لقوة عنوانه وبعض النقاط المهمة التي يضيء إليها الكاتب..
جميل أيضاً كيف يخلط الكتاب بين تجاربه الشخصية والتجارب العالمية ليضيء على مفهوم البعد الرابع لشخصياتتنا..
وهو بعد العالم الافتراضي..
لكن الكتاب لا يعطي هذا البعد حقه خاصة أنه ممل وليس به إلا اليسير من المفيد..
لكنه بشكل عام موضوع يستحق البحث والدراسة خاصة أنه يستحوذ على حياة الناس كأنه البعد الوحيد..
جميل أيضاً كيف يخلط الكتاب بين تجاربه الشخصية والتجارب العالمية ليضيء على مفهوم البعد الرابع لشخصياتتنا..
وهو بعد العالم الافتراضي..
لكن الكتاب لا يعطي هذا البعد حقه خاصة أنه ممل وليس به إلا اليسير من المفيد..
لكنه بشكل عام موضوع يستحق البحث والدراسة خاصة أنه يستحوذ على حياة الناس كأنه البعد الوحيد..
November 8, 2024
A wonderfully written book that blends social commentary with literature and philosophy. Picking this up, I was worried it would be a generic 'boo phones' sort of book, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of ideas and writing. Lots of wonderful metaphors and I've come away from this book with new ways of thinking about the world.
December 19, 2020
This is a deeply prophetic book, not because it tells the future but because it ruthlessly discerns our (digital) times and how they are molding us.
November 13, 2017
Full of fantastic metaphors and penetrating, striking and stinging insights into our all-encompassing digital world and the creation of an always-on uncannily haunted screen life, mixed in with some labored comparative literature analysis that just did not work. And he really dropped the ball with the last chapter on the "desertification" of reality and the internet. Labored comparison after labored comparison. A good editor would have trimmed Scott's escapades into intertextual analysis and chopped off that last chapter, which may have made this a touchstone reflection on the meaning of now and what's happening to us as consumer-producers.
May 17, 2016
Summary Of The Book:
Thank You to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.
This is predominantly a philosophical and existential book of musings of our entry into and existence in the digital world. Lawrence discusses how things have changed due to digitisation and the dynamics of social media and how we have evolved to use it for better or worse (*cough* over-sharing...). Lawrence takes us on a journey through modern day digital workings, evaluating where the line now blurs between where our physical presence ends and online/digital begins.
Lawrence answers questions like, how have phone calls changed? Do we catch up with friends any more, or do we just confirm what we already have learn't from social media profiles? Will the internet be able to unite race, gender and sexual orientation? Is this shared consciousness or hive mind we have created help or hinder us? Is originality going out the window? any many more.
The Four-Dimensional Human talks us through how death and mourning has changed due to family being able to carry on the memory of their loved one through social media, and also people's pain and suffering being so available to everyone they know. LS explains that how we treat people has changed due to social media, how we may forget people quicker if they don't share, like our content or interact. Digitisation can affect your home life, work life and social life in so many different ways and LS takes us through those eventualities and shows us what can happen.
There are some sad truths here, but with negativity comes positivity and there is plenty of positive thoughts and opinions that weave themselves through this thought inducing and life changing material. Are we more united due to the internet? Is having a clearer picture about the companies we buy from good for the soul? We can see more of the world than ever before and with exploring comes perspective, and there is plenty of perspective here!
My Review:
When I finished this book it left a confusing taste in my brain. But having reflected over the meaning of the book and what it actually represents I believe that The Four Dimensional Human is definitely worth a read.
The format of this book is very informal, introduction, 7 chapters and an epilogue. The writing style is quite informal too, it comes across to me as if the author was just talking to himself about this subject and we were just there for the ride, it is a bumpy ride but overall it has a lot of impact.
The content of the book is important, informative and thought inducing. Lawrence walks a fine line between positivity and negativity but I believe negativity won the war. LS is not actively negative but upon finishing I was left with the impression that maybe the internet is not a force for good. Lawrence covers plenty of happy and inspiring aspects of the internet but there is a lot of room for evil online,
I really enjoyed all the metaphors, similes and analogies in this book, also Lawrence uses lots of classic and modern literature references to bring his point home and that really helped the flow. LS flow in TFDH is choppy at times but its bearable. The information and opinions in this book are sometimes overwhelming but there is something for everyone, I found one of my all time favourite quotes from a book nestled in chapter 4 of this tome.
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours."
Alan Bennett - 'The History Boys'
Lawrence Scott did an impressive job here and I would recommend this to anyone as I feel it covers enough important, relevant issues and aspects of the digital world which people should be taking into consideration. I look forward to reading more of Lawrence Scott's work.
7/10
If you enjoyed this review then seek out more on www.alwaystrustinbooks.blogspot.co.uk we post on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon UK/US, Net Galley and Bookbridgr. I really appreciate you spending your time reading this piece and have a great day!!
Thank You to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.
This is predominantly a philosophical and existential book of musings of our entry into and existence in the digital world. Lawrence discusses how things have changed due to digitisation and the dynamics of social media and how we have evolved to use it for better or worse (*cough* over-sharing...). Lawrence takes us on a journey through modern day digital workings, evaluating where the line now blurs between where our physical presence ends and online/digital begins.
Lawrence answers questions like, how have phone calls changed? Do we catch up with friends any more, or do we just confirm what we already have learn't from social media profiles? Will the internet be able to unite race, gender and sexual orientation? Is this shared consciousness or hive mind we have created help or hinder us? Is originality going out the window? any many more.
The Four-Dimensional Human talks us through how death and mourning has changed due to family being able to carry on the memory of their loved one through social media, and also people's pain and suffering being so available to everyone they know. LS explains that how we treat people has changed due to social media, how we may forget people quicker if they don't share, like our content or interact. Digitisation can affect your home life, work life and social life in so many different ways and LS takes us through those eventualities and shows us what can happen.
There are some sad truths here, but with negativity comes positivity and there is plenty of positive thoughts and opinions that weave themselves through this thought inducing and life changing material. Are we more united due to the internet? Is having a clearer picture about the companies we buy from good for the soul? We can see more of the world than ever before and with exploring comes perspective, and there is plenty of perspective here!
My Review:
When I finished this book it left a confusing taste in my brain. But having reflected over the meaning of the book and what it actually represents I believe that The Four Dimensional Human is definitely worth a read.
The format of this book is very informal, introduction, 7 chapters and an epilogue. The writing style is quite informal too, it comes across to me as if the author was just talking to himself about this subject and we were just there for the ride, it is a bumpy ride but overall it has a lot of impact.
The content of the book is important, informative and thought inducing. Lawrence walks a fine line between positivity and negativity but I believe negativity won the war. LS is not actively negative but upon finishing I was left with the impression that maybe the internet is not a force for good. Lawrence covers plenty of happy and inspiring aspects of the internet but there is a lot of room for evil online,
I really enjoyed all the metaphors, similes and analogies in this book, also Lawrence uses lots of classic and modern literature references to bring his point home and that really helped the flow. LS flow in TFDH is choppy at times but its bearable. The information and opinions in this book are sometimes overwhelming but there is something for everyone, I found one of my all time favourite quotes from a book nestled in chapter 4 of this tome.
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours."
Alan Bennett - 'The History Boys'
Lawrence Scott did an impressive job here and I would recommend this to anyone as I feel it covers enough important, relevant issues and aspects of the digital world which people should be taking into consideration. I look forward to reading more of Lawrence Scott's work.
7/10
If you enjoyed this review then seek out more on www.alwaystrustinbooks.blogspot.co.uk we post on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon UK/US, Net Galley and Bookbridgr. I really appreciate you spending your time reading this piece and have a great day!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2019
Unfortunately, you'll have to accept that any book written about the internet is destined to have some of its ideas outdated in a relatively short period of time, just based on the explosive growth and change and flux websites, apps, etc experience. This book was only published in 2015 yet calls back to some internet phenomena that made me feel like I was taking a long, deep drag from a nostalgia cigarette. Scott also makes a lot of references to pop culture, art, and history that can make this read a bit drab if you find you haven't heard of absolutely everything. But his writing style makes up for the hints of pretentiousness that do poke through occasionally. I thought I was diving into the dregs of a 200 page long rant about how the internet is culturally poisoning us - instead I found myself weaving through thoughtful metaphors about how the internet both creates and civilizes wilderness, how there is only so much piety in breaking off from social media when some parts of it do bring dimensionality to our lives, and how our online selves aren't so much a reflection as a weird distorted echo trapped in the chambers of rules we ourselves created as the internet folded itself into our lives and - for better or for worse - how it may be with us, and part of us, forever.
March 26, 2018
The internet has become all pervaise. Like Mr Tickle, Scott suggests, it has the magical ability to reach into every frame of our lives. Smart phones and tablets have become palm-sized windows onto new vistas. The tropes of social media are changing the way that we view the world. Notifications are creating new rhythms, communication is at once instant and overwhelming.
While we struggle to catch breath, time to reflect on what is happening is increasingly important. Yet here we get the space to share in Scott"s own astute observations. Unlike many books on the subjects, he doesn't appear to set out with an agenda or a pre-determined narrative. Instead he meanders through a series of themes, each a metaphor for life in a "Four Dimensional' world.
The four dimensions in question are a nod towards a trend in late 19th century literature which fantasised about a collapse of space and time that would allowing voyagers to cross instantaneously into distant locations. This is a good illustration of how Scott applies his creative imagination to the questions that he poses, and explores them within a wider cultural context of literature, film and fashion.
Like the cultural commentators of a pre-internet age, language is often a major signifier, with sections on social media speak and Digital Detox being particularly droll. Scott's day job as a lecturer in creative writing also shows through in the quality of his own prose.
While there are moments where Scott sails close to pretension, and occasional sections that feel overdrawn, his practice of pulling focus back to everyday life and all too familar behaviours keeps things grounded and engaging throughout.
In a decidedly non-digital hardback form the book is an analog pleasure in itself. Switch off your data service and read it now. It might just change how you behave when you reconnect.
While we struggle to catch breath, time to reflect on what is happening is increasingly important. Yet here we get the space to share in Scott"s own astute observations. Unlike many books on the subjects, he doesn't appear to set out with an agenda or a pre-determined narrative. Instead he meanders through a series of themes, each a metaphor for life in a "Four Dimensional' world.
The four dimensions in question are a nod towards a trend in late 19th century literature which fantasised about a collapse of space and time that would allowing voyagers to cross instantaneously into distant locations. This is a good illustration of how Scott applies his creative imagination to the questions that he poses, and explores them within a wider cultural context of literature, film and fashion.
Like the cultural commentators of a pre-internet age, language is often a major signifier, with sections on social media speak and Digital Detox being particularly droll. Scott's day job as a lecturer in creative writing also shows through in the quality of his own prose.
While there are moments where Scott sails close to pretension, and occasional sections that feel overdrawn, his practice of pulling focus back to everyday life and all too familar behaviours keeps things grounded and engaging throughout.
In a decidedly non-digital hardback form the book is an analog pleasure in itself. Switch off your data service and read it now. It might just change how you behave when you reconnect.
September 18, 2017
From the time I encountered the sentence, “Before everyone knew about Steve Jobs, he released Apple’s own browser in 2003, and, feeling unable to break from the journeying metaphors, threw Safari’s hat into the ring” I knew this book was written by an intelligent guy who is going to make a lot of analogies and draw a lot of conclusions from them because they "seem" correct. The book reminds me of literary semiotics, where people sometimes use math and physics concepts incorrectly understood and communicated as theoretical constructs by which to understand "the text". It doesn't go anywhere, nor did this book. 1 star.
May 3, 2017
Inspiring a new view on a mode of life that is well past the take-it-or-leave-it phase, Scott peers through the multitude of screens and finds evidence of the temporal dimension made tangible, but also still hard to grasp. With one foot in the world that should still care about the state of the planet, its bees, deserts and shorelines, the other foot is fully immersed in the digital sea of information. What we seem to be sacrificing to the hunks of plastic and silicon in our pockets comes at the small price of a sense of nostalgia, repackaged for the next generation's consumption.
June 13, 2018
I read this book right to the end -- and I deserve serious credit for that. The writing was whimsical and self-indulgent and I was never sure why certain anecdotes provided were relevant to the matter at hand. Although, there are certain vignettes in there from the author's own experience that exemplify new ways that people appropriate technology in ways that are surprising and even that can make uncomfortable reading. These evocative instances lead you to believe that insights will be imminently delivered. But they never are.
March 22, 2017
Insightful and interesting , it pinpoints our emotional , intellectual and ethical dilemma dealing with the online dimension. I've particularly enjoyed how I can find my own experience, which I thought of as unique, analyzed as a cultural phenomena.
June 22, 2016
A smart, literate look at the ways in which online culture is changing us as a species. It veers away from hard science, preferring to draw upon Scott's personal experience and his extensive reading. So much of it rang true - essential.
April 15, 2021
Starts off strong, but is kind of all over the place
October 26, 2017
I thought this would be interesting, but it ended up going all over the place. Lacked cohesion becoming empty babble.
December 26, 2018
I am actually glad that I went back to this book and gave it another chance. I almost DNF'ed it for so many reasons, such as it had been too long since I last read it and I lost interest. But, once I gave it another chance, I found myself finding it hard to put it down.
I am a person that is really into reading about technology and social media, so this book was right up my alley.
Earlier, I read Changing the Subject by Sven Birkerts and I really wanted to read another book similar to it. I want to say that I really enjoyed this book a lot. It made me think and reflect and consider things that I hadn't thought about before. I did enjoy this less than Changing the Subject, but this book was still really good and insightful. This book really had similar things to say, but it also had a lot of different things to offer and perspectives that were brought up that I had never read before.
Laurence Scott's debut amazed me! I am really looking forward to reading more from him. His writing style was beautiful with vivid descriptions that made me see what he was talking about. I was kind of surprised at how much I liked his style, how it was reminiscent of fiction novels that i have read. He made what he was talking about personal, both to him and to me, which I really enjoyed reading. The sources that he used really added to what he was talking about and the examples really helped illustrate his point.
Even though this book was short, reading through it took a lot of time. I didn't mind it, because each word and sentence were crafted to make me think. And I was doing a lot of thinking, while reading the book and during the times when I was not. It made me think of social media a lot and my relationship with it and how it has changed me. I would actually look forward to the times where I could read it uninterrupted.
Sometimes I found myself getting lost in a bad way with this book or not exactly understanding what Laurence was trying to say. For some of his examples, he seemed to go off on a tangent for a long time and I felt like it could have been shortened and still made sense.
The cover is gorgeous! I love the simplistic detail put into it, and how strong it speaks to me. The color palette is simple, but elicits strong feeling and setting.
I am a person that is really into reading about technology and social media, so this book was right up my alley.
Earlier, I read Changing the Subject by Sven Birkerts and I really wanted to read another book similar to it. I want to say that I really enjoyed this book a lot. It made me think and reflect and consider things that I hadn't thought about before. I did enjoy this less than Changing the Subject, but this book was still really good and insightful. This book really had similar things to say, but it also had a lot of different things to offer and perspectives that were brought up that I had never read before.
Laurence Scott's debut amazed me! I am really looking forward to reading more from him. His writing style was beautiful with vivid descriptions that made me see what he was talking about. I was kind of surprised at how much I liked his style, how it was reminiscent of fiction novels that i have read. He made what he was talking about personal, both to him and to me, which I really enjoyed reading. The sources that he used really added to what he was talking about and the examples really helped illustrate his point.
Even though this book was short, reading through it took a lot of time. I didn't mind it, because each word and sentence were crafted to make me think. And I was doing a lot of thinking, while reading the book and during the times when I was not. It made me think of social media a lot and my relationship with it and how it has changed me. I would actually look forward to the times where I could read it uninterrupted.
Sometimes I found myself getting lost in a bad way with this book or not exactly understanding what Laurence was trying to say. For some of his examples, he seemed to go off on a tangent for a long time and I felt like it could have been shortened and still made sense.
The cover is gorgeous! I love the simplistic detail put into it, and how strong it speaks to me. The color palette is simple, but elicits strong feeling and setting.
December 24, 2018
simply enjoy a lot while reading it!
鑑於數字世界總是傾向於模糊事物的界線，所以它稱得上是對哥特式風格最好的詮釋。我們在前面的章節裡已經探討過四維軀體的“無處不在”，還有數字化如何把現實和虛擬的概念顛倒。還記得謝默斯·希尼的詩嗎？ “你在那兒卻又不在那兒。”他詰責的不光是四維的互聯網世界，也是三維世界裡的幽靈。廣義上來說，不可親近之物有兩種表現形式，這也是哥特式風格的另一個特點，每一種都與互聯網有關。第一種是我們在探討愛彼迎怪異的家的感覺時提到的，陌生的熟悉感或熟悉的陌生感，家而非家的恐懼。第二種是活著與活動之間的區別。模特假人、洋娃娃和雕像都很像真人，雖然它們都不會動，但很容易讓人產生它們具有意識的錯覺，這種逼真的外表反倒是不可親近感的根源。與之類似的不可親近之物是屍體，屍體在去世之前都是能夠活動之物，只是不知為何生機不再。所有這些事物的形式不同，如靈魂、人偶、屍體，卻都是佔據某個臨界邊緣的模糊存在。隨著數字技術把越來越多現實生活中的層面推到類似的境地，難怪互聯網世界變得越來越哥特式。換句話說，四維世界的人類都生活在一間鬧鬼的屋子裡。
如今，社交媒體和商業的聯姻為不活躍的社交賬號賦予了市場價值，但這種價值實現的前提，是網絡世界掘屍行業的複興。殭屍賬號有點像瑪麗·雪萊（Mary Shelley）筆下的哥特式造物，弗蘭肯斯坦的創造者“從停屍房和荒野收集屍骨，為了深究人體的秘密，不惜動用旁門左道”。殭屍賬號是由計算機腳本創制的，腳本程序從真人的賬戶中抓取頭像照片和個人信息，隨後把這些信息拼湊縫合成一個會豎大拇指的怪物。弗蘭肯斯坦同樣對自己可怕的起源不以為意：“我的大部分原材料都能在解剖室和屠宰場裡找到。”因此，如今在互聯網上，現實中的用戶每天都要和數不清的縫合怪們擦肩而過。
Intertwitter以及與它類似的公司，比如Fast Followerz，構成了一個專門販售互聯網人氣的產業，該產業的估值目前已經達到了上億英鎊。對於很多生意人來說，只要能讓生意順風順水，購買這些公司提供的人氣流量服務就像給街頭藝人的帽子裡丟張100元的紙幣一樣稀鬆平常。而讓人擔憂的是，這種服務的價格一點也不貴。給自己的Twitter賬號添加10000名關注者，Fast Followerz開價99美元，而Intertwitter只要65美元。價格的差距源於殭屍賬號的品質不同。有些殭屍號看起來要比別的更像真人一些。最粗製濫造的量產號一般一眼就能被人認出來，因為它們通常沒有頭像和個人信息，在點贊和轉發方面也不積極。另外，這些賬號關注和被關注數的比例也有明顯的問題。社交平台上的活死人與電影裡的一樣，喜歡追逐別人而很少被人追逐。
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社交平台能把你帶回從前的功能給我們逃避和拒絕悲劇的天性撐起了一把遮風擋雨的傘，我們否認眼前的事實，不願意踏出安全區一步。 ......看到他的主頁這麼熱鬧我實在是很欣慰。他就像乘著一扇陷阱門消失了，然後突然又被朋友們召喚了回來。我如飢似渴地翻著他留下的消息，而當它們開始變得越來越稀疏，經常間隔數天甚至數週的時候，一股強烈的失望感油然而生。我不知道那時他的生活裡發生了什麼，直到今天社交網站也沒有告訴過我半個字。 ......
當年在帕洛阿爾托熬夜寫代碼的馬克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）是否曾想見，他傾注心血修建的是一條通向彼岸世界的通道？他母親造訪的記錄幾乎讓我不忍再看下去。她深切的悲痛讓在夜裡滿足自己好奇心的我羞愧難當，她驅散了使我頭腦發熱的腎上腺素，讓我能夠靜下來好好想一想為什麼會這樣。對死者的八卦本身就應當引起對冒犯他人的警覺，這種行為反映了當事人涵養的欠缺，理應讓人感到羞恥和內疚。然而在沒有旁觀者指指點點的情況下，即便是冒犯他人的預警信號也變得綿軟無力。在八卦、文字和記憶三者之間的夾縫中，自我授意下的冒犯讓人感覺既沒有損害他人利益，又頗具佔人便宜的快感。又過了一段時間，他母親懇切的探望也消失了。我緩緩地返回開始的地方，回到充滿生日祝福和哀悼的當下。稀疏的新鮮事讓時間的跳躍變得飛快。可是他的母親一直在我的腦海裡揮之不去，於是我點開了她的主頁，想把她召喚到我身邊，解答我心中的困惑。首先映入我眼簾的是在她主頁的最上方，竟然是幾位好友的道別。我突然意識到，她在自己兒子去世一周年的那天已經駕鶴西去了，也就是說在那個晚上，我一直在傾聽一個靈魂對另一個靈魂的慟哭和思念。
鑑於數字世界總是傾向於模糊事物的界線，所以它稱得上是對哥特式風格最好的詮釋。我們在前面的章節裡已經探討過四維軀體的“無處不在”，還有數字化如何把現實和虛擬的概念顛倒。還記得謝默斯·希尼的詩嗎？ “你在那兒卻又不在那兒。”他詰責的不光是四維的互聯網世界，也是三維世界裡的幽靈。廣義上來說，不可親近之物有兩種表現形式，這也是哥特式風格的另一個特點，每一種都與互聯網有關。第一種是我們在探討愛彼迎怪異的家的感覺時提到的，陌生的熟悉感或熟悉的陌生感，家而非家的恐懼。第二種是活著與活動之間的區別。模特假人、洋娃娃和雕像都很像真人，雖然它們都不會動，但很容易讓人產生它們具有意識的錯覺，這種逼真的外表反倒是不可親近感的根源。與之類似的不可親近之物是屍體，屍體在去世之前都是能夠活動之物，只是不知為何生機不再。所有這些事物的形式不同，如靈魂、人偶、屍體，卻都是佔據某個臨界邊緣的模糊存在。隨著數字技術把越來越多現實生活中的層面推到類似的境地，難怪互聯網世界變得越來越哥特式。換句話說，四維世界的人類都生活在一間鬧鬼的屋子裡。
如今，社交媒體和商業的聯姻為不活躍的社交賬號賦予了市場價值，但這種價值實現的前提，是網絡世界掘屍行業的複興。殭屍賬號有點像瑪麗·雪萊（Mary Shelley）筆下的哥特式造物，弗蘭肯斯坦的創造者“從停屍房和荒野收集屍骨，為了深究人體的秘密，不惜動用旁門左道”。殭屍賬號是由計算機腳本創制的，腳本程序從真人的賬戶中抓取頭像照片和個人信息，隨後把這些信息拼湊縫合成一個會豎大拇指的怪物。弗蘭肯斯坦同樣對自己可怕的起源不以為意：“我的大部分原材料都能在解剖室和屠宰場裡找到。”因此，如今在互聯網上，現實中的用戶每天都要和數不清的縫合怪們擦肩而過。
Intertwitter以及與它類似的公司，比如Fast Followerz，構成了一個專門販售互聯網人氣的產業，該產業的估值目前已經達到了上億英鎊。對於很多生意人來說，只要能讓生意順風順水，購買這些公司提供的人氣流量服務就像給街頭藝人的帽子裡丟張100元的紙幣一樣稀鬆平常。而讓人擔憂的是，這種服務的價格一點也不貴。給自己的Twitter賬號添加10000名關注者，Fast Followerz開價99美元，而Intertwitter只要65美元。價格的差距源於殭屍賬號的品質不同。有些殭屍號看起來要比別的更像真人一些。最粗製濫造的量產號一般一眼就能被人認出來，因為它們通常沒有頭像和個人信息，在點贊和轉發方面也不積極。另外，這些賬號關注和被關注數的比例也有明顯的問題。社交平台上的活死人與電影裡的一樣，喜歡追逐別人而很少被人追逐。
.....................
社交平台能把你帶回從前的功能給我們逃避和拒絕悲劇的天性撐起了一把遮風擋雨的傘，我們否認眼前的事實，不願意踏出安全區一步。 ......看到他的主頁這麼熱鬧我實在是很欣慰。他就像乘著一扇陷阱門消失了，然後突然又被朋友們召喚了回來。我如飢似渴地翻著他留下的消息，而當它們開始變得越來越稀疏，經常間隔數天甚至數週的時候，一股強烈的失望感油然而生。我不知道那時他的生活裡發生了什麼，直到今天社交網站也沒有告訴過我半個字。 ......
當年在帕洛阿爾托熬夜寫代碼的馬克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）是否曾想見，他傾注心血修建的是一條通向彼岸世界的通道？他母親造訪的記錄幾乎讓我不忍再看下去。她深切的悲痛讓在夜裡滿足自己好奇心的我羞愧難當，她驅散了使我頭腦發熱的腎上腺素，讓我能夠靜下來好好想一想為什麼會這樣。對死者的八卦本身就應當引起對冒犯他人的警覺，這種行為反映了當事人涵養的欠缺，理應讓人感到羞恥和內疚。然而在沒有旁觀者指指點點的情況下，即便是冒犯他人的預警信號也變得綿軟無力。在八卦、文字和記憶三者之間的夾縫中，自我授意下的冒犯讓人感覺既沒有損害他人利益，又頗具佔人便宜的快感。又過了一段時間，他母親懇切的探望也消失了。我緩緩地返回開始的地方，回到充滿生日祝福和哀悼的當下。稀疏的新鮮事讓時間的跳躍變得飛快。可是他的母親一直在我的腦海裡揮之不去，於是我點開了她的主頁，想把她召喚到我身邊，解答我心中的困惑。首先映入我眼簾的是在她主頁的最上方，竟然是幾位好友的道別。我突然意識到，她在自己兒子去世一周年的那天已經駕鶴西去了，也就是說在那個晚上，我一直在傾聽一個靈魂對另一個靈魂的慟哭和思念。
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