Restless Devices, Felicia Wu Song
Restless Devices, Felicia Wu Song
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Restless Devices
Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age

Author: Felicia Wu Song

Narrator: Eunice Wong

Unabridged: 8 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/30/2021

Synopsis

We're being formed by our devices. Today's digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital "powers that be" might seem like a losing battle.

Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of living in digital ecosystems. In this book she combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions: What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand? and who do we really want to be?

Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits and their subtle yet pervasive effects. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition, especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time. Considering digital practices through the lens of "liturgy" and formation, she offers practical experiments for individual and communal change.

About Felicia Wu Song

Felicia Wu Song is a cultural sociologist of media and digital technologies, currently serving as professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. Her publications include Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together and articles in such scholarly journals as Gender and Society and Information, Communication & Society.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bob on January 24, 2022

Summary: An exploration of how our digital devices shape us, our relationships, and our economic life, and how we might establish a “counter” lifestyle shaped by our communion with God and each other. Do you recall how your life changed when you acquired your first smartphone? Or think further back t......more

Goodreads review by Janae on July 14, 2023

4.5 stars. I loved how the author addressed the greater issue than merely too much time on our phones. She highlighted the things that we truly need and what we should be replacing our phone time with. It was a good mix of scientific research and spiritual insights to back the claims of the book up......more

Goodreads review by Alexandru on December 30, 2021

I've finished the book at the end of 2021 and I can say it's been rather convicting. The book is a socio-theological mix. The first part focuses on information regarding digital ecology, social media, tech companies (plenty of research, be it historical, psychological, neurological...). While some i......more

Goodreads review by Lynette on January 22, 2025

This book was a natural follow-up to The Liturgy of the Ordinary. It provided practical guidance and in-depth reasoning on how and why we need to carefully consider our use of the digital in order to be fully present with one another and to experience true communion.......more

Goodreads review by Michael on March 18, 2022

What does it mean to live our lives as embodied persons? Our increasingly digital lives make the answer to this simple question far more convoluted. Felicia Wu Song provides a ton of thoughtful discussion on how and why we are struggling in the digital age, AND she also includes incredibly helpful “......more

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