Hamlet’s BlackBerry

Part memoir and part intellectual quest, William Powers takes on what he calls the conundrum of connectedness. Computers and mobile devices do a great deal for people, he grants, but they also make it harder to focus, do good work, build strong relationships and find depth. As electronic connection grows, he argues, people are pulled away from the experiences and ties that make life rich. Looking for an everyday philosophy for life with screens, he turns to thinkers from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, since new technologies have always brought excitement and stress, and concludes that connectedness serves people best when balanced by its opposite. He uses his own life as a test case.

Cal Newport recommended it as a delightful 2010 techno-history.