The acclaimed editor of The New York Times Book Review takes
readers on a nostalgic tour of the pre-Internet age, offering powerful
insights into both the profound and the seemingly trivial things we've
lost.
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS - "A deft blend of nostalgia, humor and
devastating insights."--People
Remember all those ingrained habits, cherished ideas, beloved objects,
and stubborn preferences from the pre-Internet age? They're gone.
To some of those things we can say good riddance. But many we miss
terribly. Whatever our emotional response to this departed realm, we are
faced with the fact that nearly every aspect of modern life now takes
place in filtered, isolated corners of cyberspace--a space that has
slowly subsumed our physical habitats, replacing or transforming the
office, our local library, a favorite bar, the movie theater, and the
coffee shop where people met one another's gaze from across the room.
Even as we've gained the ability to gather without leaving our house,
many of the fundamentally human experiences that have sustained us have
disappeared.
In one hundred glimpses of that pre-Internet world, Pamela Paul, editor
of The New York Times Book Review, presents a captivating record,
enlivened with illustrations, of the world before cyberspace--from
voicemails to blind dates to punctuation to civility. There are the
small losses: postcards, the blessings of an adolescence largely spared
of documentation, the Rolodex, and the genuine surprises at high school
reunions. But there are larger repercussions, too: weaker memories, the
inability to entertain oneself, and the utter demolition of privacy.
100 Things We've Lost to the Internet is at once an evocative swan
song for a disappearing era and, perhaps, a guide to reclaiming just a
little bit more of the world IRL.
