Overwhelmed By Virtual Realities with Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff argues that we are being overwhelmed by technological advances. He looks at how our society is reacting to this new media world.

People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, compile knowledge, and connect with anyone, at anytime. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be compressed.

Well, the future’s arrived. We live in a continuous now enabled by Twitter, email, and a so-called real-time technological shift. Yet this “now” is an elusive goal that we can never quite reach. And the dissonance between our digital selves and our analog bodies has thrown us into a new state of anxiety: Present Shock.

Douglas Rushkoff teaches at New York University and The New School and is a technology and media commentator for CNN.
Source: BookTV: Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

Next week Reinhold Niebuhr rediscovered.

Download or Play Present Shock Part 1
Download or Play Present Shock Part 2
Download or Play Present Shock Part 3
Download or Play Present Shock Part 4

Music includes Neil Young - War Song, Odetta - Masters Of War, Crosby Stills Nash Young - Chicago, Pete Seeger - The Draft Dodger Rag, Terry Gangstad - NRAA, Capitol Steps - Still Crazy After All These Years, Ani Di Franco - Self Evident, Ronald Reagan 1-20-1981, In A World Gone Mad - Beastie Boys, Willie Nelson - Stardust, Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again, John Coltrane - Afro-Blue

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