iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives

by Craig Detweiler

Overview

Today the world is literally at our fingertips. We can call, text, email, or post our status to friends and family on the go. We can carry countless games, music, and apps in our pocket. Yet it's easy to feel overwhelmed by access to so much information and exhausted from managing our online relationships and selves.

Craig Detweiler, a nationally known writer and speaker on media issues, provides needed Christian perspective on navigating today's social media culture. He interacts with major symbols, or "iGods," of our distracted age—Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Pixar, YouTube, and Twitter—to investigate the impact of the technologies and cultural phenomena that drive us. Detweiler offers a historic look at where we've been and a prophetic look at where we're headed, helping us sort out the immediate from the eternal, the digital from the divine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587433443
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/19/2013
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Craig Detweiler (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is an author, award-winning filmmaker, and cultural commentator who has been featured in the New York Times, on CNN, and on NPR. He is professor of communication and director of the Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Detweiler is the author of Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century, coauthor of A Matrix of Meanings, and editor of Halos and Avatars.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction: iGods
1. Defining Technology
2. Apple: Aesthetics First
3. A Brief History of the Internet
4. Amazon: Personalized Abundance
5. Google: Algorithmic Authority
6. A Brief History of Social Networking
7. Facebook: Authentic Frenemies
8. You Tube, Twitter, Instagram: Audience Participation
Conclusion: The Telos of Technology
Index

Editorial Reviews

10/07/2013
Detweiler (A Matrix of Meanings), who teaches communication at Pepperdine University, in Malibu, Calif., examines today’s technology, from Apple to Instagram, and its impact on Americans’ spiritual lives. He knows the literature, organizes it as a good information curator should, and cites the provocative and deeper thinkers such as Jaron Lanier and Kevin Kelly. He does forget that not everyone is on Facebook and that smart phones are common but not universal, which is understandable given that he teaches and so is surrounded by the wired generation. The balance between theological reflection and simple background reporting could be better tuned. Most of today’s technology writers don’t understand the lure of iDols. An excellent conversation starter recommended for classroom use; Detweiler has made a solid contribution to the growing literature about religion and technology. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly