Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist who writes the popular "Balancing Acts" column in the Boston Globe. Her work also has appeared in the New York Times and on National Public Radio, among other national publications. Her acclaimed first book, What's Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age, examined the loss of home as a refuge.
"In a typical scientist-cum-philosopher style, Jackson manages to ask all the right questions, and ultimately leaves it up to us to decide our own fate. And in case we still aren't paying attention, she slaps us upside the virtual head with a frightening suggestion: 'We just might be too busy, wired, split-focused, and distracted to notice a return to an era of shadows and fear.'" --Pop Matters, Jul. 31, 2008 "Usually when a book is really good, I'll say it was a page-turner or I couldn't out it down. Oddly enough, I can't say that about Distracted. The reason, however, is the book made me stop and think. The author would sometimes make a point so profound or so worth mulling over that I just had to stop and digest it for a while. How many books can you think of that make you want to do that?" --Mind Connection, June 21, 2008 " Jackson offers us both a wake-up call Chr(45) and a reason for hope." --Psych Links Blog, July 21 2008 "If you are in the mood for a serious look at how society is in a decline amidst the greatest explosion of technological advance in the history of the world, you will not be disappointed." --My Shelf.com, 2008 "Jackson is not a pessimist; she believes we have the capability to regain our ability to pay attention and avoid the coming crisis she warns of. But whether or not you believe we are headed into another dark age, as Jackson claims, there is no question that taking at least some of her ideas to heart would do us all good." --Culture Cartel.com, October 20, 2008 "Maggie Jackson's book Distracted will serve as a wonderful guide for us on this journey as we begin to recognize and confess the ways in which we daily are inattentive and distracted." --Englewood Review of Books, September 5, 2008 "Jackson raises a number of important issues that deserve to be taken seriously." --Metapsychology online reviews, Vol. 13, Issue 2, January 6, 2009
"In a typical scientist-cum-philosopher style, Jackson manages to ask all the right questions, and ultimately leaves it up to us to decide our own fate. And in case we still aren't paying attention, she slaps us upside the virtual head with a frightening suggestion: 'We just might be too busy, wired, split-focused, and distracted to notice a return to an era of shadows and fear.'" --Pop Matters, Jul. 31, 2008 "Usually when a book is really good, I'll say it was a page-turner or I couldn't out it down. Oddly enough, I can't say that about Distracted. The reason, however, is the book made me stop and think. The author would sometimes make a point so profound or so worth mulling over that I just had to stop and digest it for a while. How many books can you think of that make you want to do that?" --Mind Connection, June 21, 2008 " Jackson offers us both a wake-up call Chr(45) and a reason for hope." --Psych Links Blog, July 21 2008 "If you are in the mood for a serious look at how society is in a decline amidst the greatest explosion of technological advance in the history of the world, you will not be disappointed." --My Shelf.com, 2008 "Jackson is not a pessimist; she believes we have the capability to regain our ability to pay attention and avoid the coming crisis she warns of. But whether or not you believe we are headed into another dark age, as Jackson claims, there is no question that taking at least some of her ideas to heart would do us all good." --Culture Cartel.com, October 20, 2008 "Maggie Jackson's book Distracted will serve as a wonderful guide for us on this journey as we begin to recognize and confess the ways in which we daily are inattentive and distracted." --Englewood Review of Books, September 5, 2008 "Jackson raises a number of important issues that deserve to be taken seriously." --Metapsychology online reviews, Vol. 13, Issue 2, January 6, 2009
These two thoughtful, well-written books both decry the sorry state of literacy in this country and its myriad implications. Bauerlein (English, Emory Univ.), former director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, is no stranger to the evidence of the decline of reading in America and its cultural consequences in our society. He focuses on the "new attitude, this brazen disregard ofbooks and reading" among young people. Journalist Jackson is more inclusive in her devastating account of how all of us--not just students--have lost the capacity to pay sustained attention to anything longer than a PowerPoint presentation, claiming that she sees "stunning similarities between past dark ages and our own era." Much of Bauerlein's book is reminiscent of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, and readers will probably take similar issue with some of Bauerlein's elitist pretensions (e.g., that kids read Harry Potter because other kids read it, not because they like it). These are well-informed and well-argued books, however, and both are highly recommended for all libraries.--Ellen Gilbert, Princeton, NJ Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
