[Commlist] New book: Wish I Were Here / Boredom and the Interface

New publication from McGill-Queen's University Press

*Wish I Were Here***

Boredom and the Interface

*Mark Kingwell***

*_https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/wish-i-were-here_**__*

*__*

Are you bored of the endless scroll of your social media feed? Do you 
swipe left before considering the human being whose face you just 
summarily rejected? Do you skim articles on your screen in search of 
intellectual stimulation that never arrives? If so, this book is the 
philosophical lifeline you have been waiting for. Offering a timely 
meditation on the profound effects of constant immersion in technology, 
also known as the Interface, /Wish I Were Here/ draws on philosophical 
analysis of boredom and happiness to examine the pressing issues of 
screen addiction and the lure of online outrage.

Without moralizing, Mark Kingwell takes seriously the possibility that 
current conditions of life and connection are creating hollowed-out 
human selves, divorced from their own external world. While scrolling, 
swiping, and clicking suggest purposeful action, such as choosing and 
connecting with others, Kingwell argues that repeated flicks of the 
finger provide merely the shadow of meaning, by reducing us to scattered 
data fragments, Twitter feeds, Instagram posts, shopping preferences, 
and text trends captured by algorithms. Written in accessible language 
that references both classical philosophers and contemporary critics, 
/Wish I Were Here/ turns to philosophy for a cure to the widespread 
unease that something is amiss in modern waking life.

*Mark Kingwell*is professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto.

With all best wishes,

Combined Academic Publishers

*McGill-Queen's University Press**| April 2019 | 208pp | 9780773557123 | 
HB | £23.99**

*Price subject to change.

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