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Advance Praise
for
Michael Bugeja's 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 |
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Wise, troubling,
tough-minded
and profoundly on target, Michael Bugeja sounds a clarion of concern
counterpoised
by thoughtful answers to the problems he so comprehensively airs. 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 has
delivered
a creative, new approach to media and technology in this thoughtful and
humanistic treatment. In a literature of predictable warnings about
technological
determinism, Bugeja offers powerful evidence that the "interpersonal
divide"
is even more important than its better known cousin, the "digital
divide."
The emphasis here is on meaning and human communication, not a tired
polemic
on the inevitability of technological change. The author offers
evidence
that connections between and among people trump those of computer based
signals. Refreshing!—Everette
E.
Dennis, Distinguished Felix E. Larkin Professor, 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. … The book’s arguments on "Living Three-Dimensionally"
are
not only provocative, the phrase is a great book title—perhaps even for
Professor Bugeja’s next book—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 — communication made possible by the
ever increasing electronic wizardry and information transmission
competence. Its scholarship is attested by the vast and impressive
reference to the literature, historical
and contemporary. ... 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 After reading this book I
actually turned off every TV and computer in my house. I forced my
family to talk
at dinner instead of watching Emeril Live. I told my daughter to stop
playing SIMS on line and go outside and play, read a book, or write a
letter to
a friend. I cut back on media and technology in my own life and found
my
life was less stressful, my home was less chaotic, and I had the best
night
sleep I have had in years. … The book is very well organized with an
emphasis
on ethics and civility woven throughout the text. All topics are
relevant
to real life communication. For the professor who wants to prepare
his/her
students for the real world, professional and personal, this is an
excellent
textbook—Wendy Papa,
Associate Professor,
Department of Speech Communication, Central Michigan University Dr. Bugeja’s book is
remarkable. Its pleasing, clear and persuasive writing is partnered
with a marvelously comprehensive scope of research (from Aristotle to
McLuhan to Martin Luther to Einstein to Google and CNN) and a very
strong clear moral vision: the despair and fear many of us endure today
can be linked to our "interpersonal divide," that disturbing result of
over-reliance on media technology that leaves us isolated in a place
that does not even exist. ... Its strengths
are its excellent, engaging writing; its masterful way of connecting
apparently
unrelated philosophies, problems, and psychologies and showing the
reader
the linkages (you experience an “Aha!” moment frequently); its
practical
applications of journal and discussion exercises at the chapters’ end;
and its moral authority. … I found discussed in this book some very
real
life concerns nobody else has ever placed in this context—Judy Sheppard, Journalism Professor,
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