$14.95
The Digital Pandemic
Reestablishing Face-to-Face Contact in the Electronic Age
by Mack R. Hicks, Ph.D.
It’s hard to imagine a time when the world survived without e-mails, cell phones, text messaging and Internet surfing. With an endless array of information and entertainment right at our fingertips, why would we want to spend time any way else? More and more, we communicate through typing rather than speaking and see each other through webcams instead of the flesh. Yet as important as this technology is to both personal and business matters, there is a great danger we’re not even aware of.
The Digital Pandemic: Reestablishing Face-to-Face Contact in the Electronic Age reveals the disconnection of the digital age and how we have lost touch with one another. As a society we are increasingly becoming reclusive in our personal interactions and falling farther into cyberspace. Mack R. Hicks, Ph.D., explores how when this happens, not only do we lose those true emotions with each other that make us human, but we also lose parts of ourselves and environments as well.
We learn that it is not the content of computer software that is the core problem, but rather the very process of computerization and mechanization. Hicks theorizes that computerization disrupts the balance of our primal personality types “Hunter” and “Gatherer.”
This informative guide reveals the ways we fall into Internet addiction, many times without even realizing it and how we can get back to more personal, meaningful relationships. With tips and advice for reconnecting with those most important to us in our lives and learning to once again adapt to the real world, we will discover our true selves buried beneath the URL addresses, social networking accounts and e-mail addresses.
"A fine choice for any contemporary social issues or computer collection."
— Midwest Book Review
- According to Nielson Online, 45 billion minutes are spent on social networking and blogging sites globally
- 10 city talk tour
- Advertising in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, BookPage, Baker & Taylor (Forecast and Book Alert) and Ingram
- Co-op available
Mack R. Hicks, Ph.D. , has been a licensed psychologist in private practice for over thirty years. A founding member of the American Board of Neuropsychology, he founded the first school in England for children with dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and presently operates fourteen schools for children with learning difficulties. He has written school reform legislation and was named a lead research scientist on a major grant form the National Institutes of Mental Health. He resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Visit the author's blog at psychologytoday.com/blog/digital-pandemic.
A New Horizon Press 2010 Release
Nonfiction, 5 ½ x 8 ¼, 224 pages
LC #2009927401, world rights
ISBN 13: 978-0-88282-315-7 (pb), $14.95