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Sunday, September 8, 2002 |
have we got contact, you and me?
I'm out in San Francisco still. It's been one of my favorite cities since the first MacWorld, back in 1985, and these days I often get out here twice a year.I went to Stacey's Books, a general bookstore with a strong technical book selection, where I've had one of their "Literary Licenses" for years: a discount on all of your books, and a $10 certificate every time your accumulated purchases exceed $200. With the prices of computer books being what they are,it's not that hard to qualify.
My big find so far was a copy of Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, which is about cell phones, wireless and similar technologies from a more sociological/anthropological viewpoint. I started with the essay on "Absent Presence", which is about the changes in social interactions when someone's attention has been taken up by their cell phone, WalkMan, or other device that is usurping the attention that, a century ago, would have been available to the people physically present. It's edited by two professors of Communications from Rutgers, and published by Cambridge University Press: $25, which is quite cheap for an academic book.
