Using clear, readable prose, conceptual artist and poet Kenneth
Goldsmith's manifesto shows how our time on the internet is not really
wasted but is quite productive and creative as he puts the experience in
its proper theoretical and philosophical context.
Kenneth Goldsmith wants you to rethink the internet. Many people feel
guilty after spending hours watching cat videos or clicking link after
link after link. But Goldsmith sees that "wasted" time differently.
Unlike old media, the internet demands active engagement--and it's
actually making us more social, more creative, even more productive.
When Goldsmith, a renowned conceptual artist and poet, introduced a
class at the University of Pennsylvania called "Wasting Time on the
Internet", he nearly broke the internet. The New Yorker, the
Atlantic, the Washington Post, Slate, Vice, Time, CNN, the
Telegraph, and many more, ran articles expressing their shock, dismay,
and, ultimately, their curiosity. Goldsmith's ideas struck a nerve,
because they are brilliantly subversive--and endlessly shareable.
In Wasting Time on the Internet, Goldsmith expands upon his
provocative insights, contending that our digital lives are remaking
human experience. When we're "wasting time," we're actually creating a
culture of collaboration. We're reading and writing more--and quite
differently. And we're turning concepts of authority and authenticity
upside-down. The internet puts us in a state between deep focus and
subconscious flow, a state that Goldsmith argues is ideal for
creativity. Where that creativity takes us will be one of the stories of
the twenty-first century.
Wide-ranging, counterintuitive, engrossing, unpredictable--like the
internet itself--Wasting Time on the Internet is the manifesto you
didn't know you needed.
