CONTENTS

About the Author ix
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii

INTRODUCTION: The Need to Belong   1
Thought, Word and Deed   1
The Search for Acceptance 8

CHAPTER ONE: The Impact of Media and Technology 19
Real and Virtually Real 19
McLuhan, Revisited 22
The Dawning of Mass Media 28
Advent of Marketing 33
Vision and Values 36
Journal Exercise: “On Demand Contact” 42

CHAPTER TWO: The Age of the Machine 44
Rise of Techno-Culture 44
Cultural Values 47
Media Values 50
Commercial Values 54
Journal Exercise: “Your Personal Code” 62

CHAPTER THREE: Big Data, Little People 64
How People Became Nodes 64
From Knowledge to Consumer Economy 67
The World Without Why 74
The End of Theory 78
Journal Exercise: “Forty-Eight-Hour Social Media
Experiment” 81

CHAPTER FOUR: Interpersonal Divide at Home 83
Changing Family 83
Changing Relationships 89
Changing Values 97
Journal Exercise: “Your Digital Inventory” 103

CHAPTER FIVE: Interpersonal Divide at School 105
Educational Distraction 105
Digital Education 110
Educational Diligence 114
Journal Exercise: “Real Time and Place” 116

CHAPTER SIX: Interpersonal Divide at Work 118
Interpersonal Analytics 118
Interpersonal Interference 121
Interpersonal Integrity 126
Journal Exercise: “Digital Discretion” 130

CHAPTER SEVEN: Machine versus Moral Code 133
Artificial Emotion versus Intelligence 133
Impersonal versus Personal Computing 138
Utopia versus Dystopia 142
Authentic versus Artificial Community 147
Journal Exercise: “Artificial versus Human Acumen” 152

Notes 153
Selected Bibliography 177
Index 183