Alien Technology: Coping with Modern Mysteries - Softcover

Mitra, Ananda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8132104668 ISBN 13: 9788132104667

Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

Alien Technology explores the consequences of technological alienation on individuals and communities in the modern times. The world is already witnessing situations in which those who are alienated from technologies are at the mercy of those who are “in the know”. This may even lead to the creation of a new kind of class system based on technology literacy.

This book explores complex technologies, presents ways of identifying the levels of alienation, and suggests remedies for overcoming the alienation and becoming better and empowered users of technology. Replete with examples and written in lucid language, its humorous, tongue-in-cheek style will engage the reader.

About this title

Review:

[This book] is not about UFOs, three eyed aliens, mysterious crop pattern...Instead it is something extremely practical and useful to everyone though our awareness of it is very little...[The Author] explores the consequences of technological alienation in individuals, communities and countries that has led to a new caste system of the technically literate and technically illiterate, that is  defining which country is a super power and which is not...The style of the author is engaging, humorous, easy to read as the reader is able to identify with the book on a personal level...[The book] is jargon free and the prose is clear and concise. This is an important book on a topic extremely relevant in the world we live in.

(Reading Hour)

About the Author:

Ananda Mitra is a Professor of Communication at Wake Forest University, teaching courses on new media, India, and research methodology. His publications include a 10-volume series on digital technology and its social impact, a critical examination of the Indian TV series Mahabharat, an examination of the portrayal of India in the Western cinema, a book about the ways in which new digital technologies are increasingly alienated from the users, a book on the cultural issues surrounding the use of social media, and two books on research methodology. Some of these include Digital DNA: Social Networking and You (2014), India through the Western Lens: Creating National Images in Film (SAGE 1999), Alien Technology: Coping with Modern Mysteries (SAGE 2010), and Television and Popular Culture in India: A Study of the Mahabharat (SAGE 1993).

He has consulted with many different industries and is the inventor of the concept of “narbs” that allows for a careful and systematic narrative analysis of the unstructured component of big data that has become available with the growth of social media. He is considered a specialist in analyzing the way in which narratives produce images of people and places, with a special emphasis on representation of Indians across the globe.

 

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 8132104668
• ISBN 13: 9788132104667
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216