Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings About Technology—From the Telegraph to Twitter—Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt (Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2019)

Abstract

The husband-and-wife team of Prof. Fernandez and Prof. Matt interviewed 55 people for their book. My favorite conversation comes from a young man named Greg who exults in his recently acquired smart phone. So much in awe is he that he compares its use to entering a cathedral “ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ldots $ </tex-math></inline-formula> there’s entire worlds [the Internet] contained in this smartphone that invites me to an experience of awe <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ldots $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ” Fifteen months later, in 2017 he’s had a change of heart: “Yes, the screen is a cathedral, but it is not <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">the</i> cathedral <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ldots $ </tex-math></inline-formula> you don’t have that moment of stepping through the low door [of the cathedral] and then standing up into the majesty of the cathedral.” In a bit over a year, his love affair with his phone has lost some of its ecstasy.