Winner of the Clifford G. Christians Award for research in media ethics

• Perhaps no previous scholar has synthesized the ways media technologies are harming a sense of community, especially in such a compact book. ... Perhaps [Bugeja] ought to give himself credit for implanting optimism in at least some of his readers, because his book, if read carefully, is empowering—Des Moines Register

• Wise, troubling, tough-minded and profoundly on target, Interpersonal Divide is a thoughtfully human response to the burgeoning challenge to our sense and practice of community posed by the new communications technologies, their use as well as misuse—Hodding Carter III, President and CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

• Michael Bugeja's Interpersonal Divide is a book of concerned prescription. An accomplished poet, an ethicist and a journalism professor, Bugeja aims to assess "changes resulting from the Technology Revolution of the 1990s." He's careful to note at the start of this admirably clear volume that he has not written a book of "social panic." But he has written one of social high anxiety—The Washington Post
  

• In appealing for the restoration of community, Michael Bugeja offers a perceptive diagnosis and a wise, humanistic prescription for the ills of our runaway technology—Theodore Roszak, author of The Cult of Information and The Making of a Counter Culture

• Michael Bugeja has delivered a creative, new approach to media and technology in this thoughtful and humanistic treatment. The emphasis here is on meaning and human communication, not a tired polemic on the inevitability of technological change. ... Refreshing!—Everette E. Dennis, Distinguished Felix E. Larkin Professor, Fordham University

• Michael Bugeja—as an ethicist of renown—cares genuinely and deeply about the human family and our collective struggles. Indeed, citizens of the global village will applaud this effort to unwrap mediated life and its impact on our souls, not to mention on our societies.—Patricia Raybon, author of My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love and Forgiveness

• Dr. Bugeja's book is an extraordinary example of scholarship at its best, bringing to focus the many facets of human communication. ...  I will keep this book on my reference shelf when the need arises to access the vast body of human thinking and work on the subject of interpersonal experience and technology—Anthony Debons, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

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Description

Electronic communication now keeps us connected, wired, and cabled to the entire world. Why, then, do we often feel displaced and increasingly isolated in the global village? Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age seeks to answer the question: have media and technology created a social gap, eroding our sense of community? Author Michael Bugeja tackles this question by taking a broad and interdisciplinary approach, incorporating a number of different viewpoints, including global, ethical, philosophical, corporate, pop cultural, and sociological perspectives. Bugeja analyzes the "interpersonal divide"—the void that develops between people when we spend too much time in virtual rather than in real communities—and makes a case for face-to-face communication in a technological world. He traces media history to show how other generations have coped with similar problems during periods of great technological change, recommending ways to "repatriate to the village."
 
This ground-breaking book documents how long-standing media theories—including ones by Marshall McLuhan—may no longer hold in the wake of new media and intrusive technology. Bugeja investigates the impact and motives of media ecosystems that have polluted the Internet and other digital devices with marketing ploys, delivering to consumers a global mall rather than a global village. Interpersonal Divide informs readers how to use media and technology wisely so that they enhance rather than replace community.

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Class Uses

Each chapter contains journal exercises, discussion and paper ideas, and suggested readings to help    students develop an awareness of the impact of media and technology on their own lives and on society as a whole. A companion Web site, http://www.interpersonal-divide.org, features information about the book, new material for lecture or discussion, and a 100-page Instructor's Manual. It also contains a link to the blogosphere where you and your students can add your comments and perspectives.

Concerning the Instructor's Manual, Matthew J. Smith, co-author of Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity and Culture (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), calls the downloadable manual "exceptionally well done." Smith writes, "Many times I have wished to see the pedagogy informing a text before I even troubled myself to order an exam copy. I like how your site gives potential adopters as much information as they may wish (short of the actual book itself, of course)."

Interpersonal Divide is ideal for use in various undergraduate and graduate courses, including:

Contents

Introduction: The Need to Belong

 
1. Displacement in the Global Village

High-Tech and Original Habitats

The Interpersonal Divide

Big Box Displacement

Loss of Perspective

A Lifelong Quest

2. The Human Condition

Peace and Empowerment

Survival in Virtual Environments

The Marketing of Self-Help

The Ethics of Our Condition

Convenience Over Conscience

3. Habits of a High-Tech Age

The Hype of Self-Help

Seven Habits of Highly Mediated People

The Accelerated Biological Clock

Wondering What Is Real

4. Impact of Media and Technology

The Real and Virtually Real

The Dawning of Mass Media

The Advent of Marketing

Vision and Values

5. Blurring of Identity and Place

The Disembodied Self

Mapping the Consumer Genome

Moral and Social Upheaval

Endangered Habitats

6. The Medium is the Moral

McLuhan, Revisited

The New Generation Gap

The Unnatural Order of Things

7. Icons and Caricatures

Icons and Idols

Icons and Advertising

Mentors and Caricatures

8. Living Three Dimensionally

Virtues and Environments

The Moral Importance of Place

Dimensions of Community

9. Repatriation to the Village

Ethical Inventories

Foci of Our Discontent

Mis-Mediated Messages

A Place in the Village

Notes

            Index