Synopses & Reviews
People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, and compile knowledge. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be compressed.
Well, the futures arrived. We live in a continuous now enabled by Twitter, email, and a so-called real-time technological shi ft. 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 Rushko weaves together seemingly disparate events and trends into a rich, nuanced portrait of how life in the eternal present has affected our biology, behavior, politics, and culture.
Invaluable.” The New York Times
This is a wondrously thought-provoking book.” Walter Isaacson
A sobering wake-up call to collectively reexamine our relationship with time before were blindsided by an unwelcome future.” Booklist
Review
“With immense force and inimitable style, Douglas Rushkoff takes us on an engaging, frightening, and oddly exhilarating journey into the boardrooms where compliance professionals hone their skills.
Coercion is destined to be remembered as a watershed in the battle between the marketing industry and the public it means to manipulate.” -
Wired “An important book… a clear warning to Americans who are unaware of the power of words to intentionally mislead the reader, listener, or viewer. Read this book, and nobody gets hurt.” -Senator Bob Kerrey
“A scathing critique that extends far beyond cyberspace in scope.” -Publishers Weekly
“The most disturbing book of the year… Be careful where you log on.” -The New York Post
“Unmasks a culture of hype and deception.” -Vibe
Synopsis
Noted media pundit and author of Playing the Future Douglas Rushkoff gives a devastating critique of the influence techniques behind our culture of rampant consumerism. With a skilled analysis of how experts in the fields of marketing, advertising, retail atmospherics, and hand-selling attempt to take away our ability to make rational decisions, Rushkoff delivers a bracing account of media ecology today, consumerism in America, and why we buy what we buy, helping us recognize when we're being treated like consumers instead of human beings.
Synopsis
People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, and compile knowledge. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be compressed.
Well, the futures 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 Rushko weaves together seemingly disparate events and trends into a rich, nuanced portrait of how life in the eternal present has affected our biology, behavior, politics, and culture.
Invaluable.” The New York Times
This is a wondrously thought-provoking book.” Walter Isaacson
A sobering wake-up call to collectively reexamine our relationship with time before were blindsided by an unwelcome future.” Booklist
About the Author
Douglas Ruskoff's previous books--including Cyberia and Media Virus--have been translated into thirteen languages. He is the Technology and Culture Consultant to the United Nations Commission on World Culture and a regular consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and he writes a bi-weekly column for the New York Times syndicate. He teaches at the Esalen Institute and Banff Center for the Arts, and will be adjunct professor of Media Sociology at New York University in 1999. He lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
Introduction: They Say
Chapter One: Hand-to-Hand
Chapter Two: Atmospherics
Chapter Three: Spectacle
Chapter Four: Public Relations
Chapter Five: Advertising
Chapter Six: Pyramids
Chapter Seven: Virtual Marketing
Postscript: Buyer's Remorse
Bibliography
Notes
Index