Very interesting and insightful read! Not the most thrilling read, but it was definitely thoroughly-researched and I respected that!

Restless Devices
Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age
by Felicia Wu Song
Pub Date 30 Nov 2021 |
InterVarsity Press, IVP Academic
Christian | Religion & Spirituality


I am reviewing a copy of Restless Devices through InterVarsity Press and Netgalley:


Unfortunately in this day and age we are being formed by our devices. Today's digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God.


Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the "industrializing" effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital "powers that be" might seem like a losing battle. Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of digital ecosystems.


In this book Felicia Wu Song combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions: What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand? And who do we really want to be? Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time and offers practical experiments for individual and communal change. In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live—and how we can get there.



I give Restless Devices five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

**The review was missed at the time of my reading.

Restless devices is the type of book that needs to be given to multiple generations and each individual needs to spend time investing in the lessons and truths within. I won't lie, there are a few books out there in the same stream, some written in quality others rushed out. Felica Wu Song does the topic justice and fits in the category of quality with this book.

The most applicable portion of this book, which I actually found to be echoed in my mind constantly, is how we wrap our selves into our devices and somehow create a stream of worth from them. The error in this, of course, is how they can also destroy us so easily. Felicia in return gives a path for resisting these issues (and devices) which shows the reader there is hope for a better personal view.

I know this book will not apply to every person, but if you own a device or any kind, you will want to pick up this book and discover a better way. Take the applications and apply them not only to your own life, but help your family to do so as well. Especially if you have teenagers.

I am fascinated by the conversation around technology and the fact that we are all living in a social experiment with our smartphones. I was immediately intrigued by this take on the topic, curious about what Song had to say about how it affects us spiritually, from a Christian perspective. This book is well-researched and incredibly academic. It raises a lot of healthy questions and also hope. I definitely enjoyed it, but I do think for anyone delving into the topic it's data-heavy in a way that might not be for everyone. I enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

With the fast-changing technological landscape, issues pertaining to human-machine interactions continue to evolve. Since the turn of the century, people are increasingly using technological devices in all of their human interactions. Whether one is a digital native or digital immigrant, the common denominator between the different generations is the use of technology. What is increasingly common is that time spent for both adults and kids on digital devices is also rising, albeit for different reasons. Addiction, mental health, restlessness, and so on are becoming more unsettling each day. Just think about it. How many people can live without WiFi or some form of Internet access? In this book, author and professor Felicia Wu Song argues that we are all descending down a digital environment that is threatening to unravel our personhood and calls us all to start on the journey to recover our humanness through a process of re-embodiment. We do not have to surrender to every desire to upgrade our devices or to constantly check our phones for the latest news. Song proposes three paths forward::

1) Spiritual disciplines and practices
2) Recovery of our Human Embodiment
3) Living in Community

Part One of the book is more diagnostic to help us understand the digital ecology we are living in. Taking us back to the 1990s, she tells of our fascination with computers and games. By the turn of the century, the Internet evolves from a simple dial-up into a wireless behemoth for all kinds of social communications. From what was previously done offline, nearly everything now could be done online. What was previously considered an Internet that is "out there" is now very much into our homes and our lives. How we respond to technology advancements depends not just on our usage but on our understanding of what technology is doing to us. She warns us about the "terms of agreement" that many of us have signed up to unwittingly, that we have given away not only our information but our precious time and resources. Many commercial companies understand the connection between our physiological and psychological tendency to want to be connected and are using it for their own ends. Recognizing the importance to redeem both our time and our lives, Song guides us through the four stages of "The Freedom Project." The first stage is a regular cold-turkey digital fast. Stage Two requires us to do a "digital stocktaking" to check our time and usage of the different digital devices and apps. Stage Three is about internalizing these processes into a regular pattern or liturgy. Stage Four considers alternative futures to rethink our usage and relationship with the digital world.

My Thoughts
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The audience for this book is primarily an academic one. It is useful for researchers, scholars, and students of social engineering, etc. The author is not alone in her critique of technology. She engages a host of experts who had spent time thinking and engaging the effects of technology on human behaviour. At the beginning of each chapter, she puts forth a key thesis to prepare us for where she is going, lest we become lost in the spaghetti of information provided. She is well-versed in the many apps and existing social media platforms. Readers can be rest assured that they are learning from someone who is not just lamenting on the current state of digital infatuation in society but someone who is more intent on redeeming rather than dispensing away with. This calls for a lot of discernment on our part. We cannot mindlessly give away our precious time to do what the modern apps are tempting us to do. Everything has a purpose and as long as we are in control of how we use the technology, we are fine. The warning however is apt. For the uninitiated, it is a wakeup call to be more critical of what we use on a daily basis. For the rest of us, Song's reminder is for us to keep in step not with the pace of technology but to make space for ourselves. Currently, mainstream culture tend to accept the use of technological without much critique. Books like this will equip us with appropriate questions to ask about why we are doing what we are doing. We learn how to question our presumptions and things we normally take for granted. Uncritical use of technology is like swimming in quicksand. It swallows us in slowly but surely, emptying us of ourselves and our purposes over time. How the future will become will depend on how much control we cede to the technological titans.

The title of this book is intriguing. Can inanimate devices be restless? Or is it more true that restlessness refers more to those who use them? I believe the latter is more challenging. Biblically, we are all infected with the restlessness associated with Cain. This reminds me about our constant search for meaning, for significance, and for purpose of life. Our relationship with technology reflects such a search. Our restlessness will continue to shift from one device to another; one technology to another; one platform to another. In fact, the basic need for communications and self-expression is the same. Only the medium has changed. In trying to keep up with the changing technologies just to do the same thing, we need to reckon with why simple tasks are now made more complex than before. A simple phone call is no longer simply picking up the phone and dial. There are passwords to unlock the phone. There are different phone apps to choose. Calling has become diversified from traditional phone numbers to conventional email addresses and latest VOIP apps. Sometimes, how we connect depends also on what type of phones our recipients are using. Can iMessage and FaceTime work with Android phones? What about the latest video-conferencing facilities like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom? Are the apps complicating our need for a simple phone call? I believe they are. That is why I think we need to take a regular step back to examine what we really need, so that we do not become caught up in the commercial battles of the technological titans.

This book has a crucial message that we all need to hear. We don't simply take a break from these devices. We need to use that space to reconnect with our Creator God, and to learn once again that salvation comes not from the latest and the greatest, but from Almighty God who loved us and gave His Son for us all. If this book could free us from the tentacles of technological temptations in some way, it would have worth every cent.

Felicia Wu Song (PhD, University of Virginia) is a cultural sociologist of media and digital technologies, currently serving as professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. Her publications include Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together and articles in such scholarly journals as Gender & Society and Information, Communication & Society.

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.