Sven Birkerts is the Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars and editor of the journal AGNI based at Boston University. In this brilliantly written book, he probes the transformations taking place in our view of reality, our search for meaning, and our understanding of identity thanks to technology. Birkerts has no smartphone, uses email with reservations, and spends a small amount of time reading online.
The world is deluging us with data. More and more people are frustrated by TMI (too much information). Yet the flow of ceaseless cybersowing and cyberreaping continues. Birkerts laments the loss of time just sorting through all the data on the Internet and the stream of emails. Our love affair with keypads and screens leaves only small pockets of time for contemplation, aesthetic appreciation, or the ample benefits of human interaction.
Birkerts quotes Max Frisch who decades ago defined technology as "the knack of rearranging the world so that we don't have to experience it." An example of this is our reliance on GPS where we find our way around by putting our trust in the infallibility of a device instead of the old-fashioned way of personal exploration. As a creative soul who believes in mystery, getting lost, and dealing with the unforeseen, Birkerts celebrates the learnings that can accrue from these experiences.
A widely respected book reviewer, the author is saddened by the diminishment of experts and the increasing acceptance of customer or consumer reviews. He sees reading a good book as a workshop for attention which he hails as a prerequisite for creativity and the exercise of the imagination.
Changing the Subject by Sven Birkerts presents a thoughtful and soul-stirring assessment of the both the drawbacks and the benefits of technology in the Age of the Internet.
