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Chargement... Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (2004)par Eric Brende
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I very much enjoyed reading this book, & was pleased to see it was not completely anti-technology, but calls for more thought in how we use it. 4.5 stars Part memoir, part critique of modern living, and a few helpful tips about using less technology. I really liked this book - it was informative and funny, and easy to read. I highly recommend it to anyone who is feeling tired with the "normal" mentalities of bigger is better and being busy means you matter. Honestly, one of the only drawbacks I found related to his faith. He's Catholic, and yet at one point, when he mentions God's influence in the world, he tacks on "or substitute here your own word for the hidden impetus underlying and uniting visible phenomena" (p 45), which was a huge copout to me. For someone who doesn't believe in God, it would be easy enough for them to come to that workaround on their own, but for a Christian to hand it to them and essentially state that truth about God is relative is just not okay, as it contradicts the Bible, God's Word. Other than that, a great read. Overall a good book but the author comes across to be a bit of an evangelical fundamentalist with his anti-technology views. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to that, though, having had similar feelings and broadcast them on my blog back when we lived in a yurt with no electricity or running water for 2 years. Ten years after that, living then in a highrise in Canada's biggest city I realized that it was pretty narrow-minded of me to be so sure that living that simply was not only right for me but the way everyone should be living. It was right for our family then, and a different way of life is right for us now. The author seems to fall into the same trap I did - feeling that the fact that the life change he made then and that worked so well for him then was the life change that everyone else needs to make, and that many of society's ills are caused by the failure of everyone to do so. Thought-provoking, but at times too pretentious for my taste. It made me excited to plant my garden and ride my bike when the weather turns nice again, but it also made me want to smack him several times because he sounded like such a pretentious know-it-all when he really didn't have a clue. Overall it was pretty good, and challenged me to become less dependent on technology. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
What happens when a graduate of MIT, the bastion of technological advancement, and his bride move to a community so primitive in its technology that even Amish groups consider it antiquated? Eric Brende conceives a real-life experiment: to see if, in fact, all our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier and better -- or whether life would be preferable without them. By turns, the query narrows down to a single question: What is the least we need to achieve the most? With this in mind, the Brendes ditch their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized or "hooked to the grid" and begin an eighteen-month trial run -- one that dramatically changes the way they live, and proves entertaining and surprising to readers. Better OFF is a smart, often comedic, and always riveting book that also mingles scientific analysis with the human story, demonstrating how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress -- and waistlines -- and expand happiness, health, and leisure. Our notion that technophobes are backward gets turned on its head as the Brendes realize that the crucial technological decisions of their adopted Minimite community are made more soberly and deliberately than in the surrounding culture, and the result is greater -- not lesser -- mastery over the conditions of human existence. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)303.483Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Social Processes Social change Causes of change Development of science and technologyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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