Quarterly Essay #72, Sebastian Smee: Net Loss: The Inner Life in the Digital Age.
Sat, Mar 16, 2019./noise/books | LinkOn the not-yet-dead iPhone via Overdrive, loaned from the Randwick City Library after quite a wait. Not at all what I thought it would be: Smee seems ignorant of such not-so-recent critiques as Jarett Kobek's i hate the internet and Amartya Sen's capabilities model that aims to move past the blockages induced by overly rigid notions of identity. When will social media be deemed as dangerous to society as Class A drugs? The hand wringing concern comes in commodified form, oh the irony. He avoids following any thought too far. I guess I had hopes for a meditation on what is worth concentrating our shredded attention on these days; this diffuse essay isn't it.
I only briefly scanned the responses to Laura Tingle's previous Quarterly Essay. Both were busts, I feel.