Viktor Mayer-Schönberger: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · facebook, internet, memory, myspace, privacy, surveillance, web 2.0
Delete looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we’ve searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten, and this has profound implications for us all.
In Delete, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger traces the important role that forgetting has played throughout human history, from the ability to make sound decisions unencumbered by the past to the possibility of second chances. The written word made it possible for humans to remember across generations and time, yet now digital technology and global networks are overriding our natural ability to forget–the past is ever present, ready to be called up at the click of a mouse. Mayer-Schönberger examines the technology that’s facilitating the end of forgetting–digitization, cheap storage and easy retrieval, global access, and increasingly powerful software–and describes the dangers of everlasting digital memory, whether it’s outdated information taken out of context or compromising photos the Web won’t let us forget. He explains why information privacy rights and other fixes can’t help us, and proposes an ingeniously simple solution–expiration dates on information–that may.
Delete is an eye-opening book that will help us remember how to forget in the digital age.
Publisher Princeton University Press, 2009
ISBN 0691138613, 9780691138619
237 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-9-23)
Comments (6)6 Responses to “Viktor Mayer-Schönberger: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (2009)”
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Great thing, i’m gonna start reading right now. I’m really concern about this subject either. People are living in a time of mountain of information and they can’t qualify, categorize and do a “deep reading” of. Besides that, there’s also the problem of memory and the quality, which i’m sure that you wrote about it. I guess you should check with librarians because i know that they really study those matters, deeply.
As soon as i finish, I send you my opinion about it.
Thanks and God Bless
Hi, I’ve a problem with downloading of this book (and a few other). Is it possible to repair it or send it to me via email? Google books is nice but I prefer full text :-)) Maybe I just doing something wrong.. Thanx :-)
should be fine now
You are GENIUS!!!! Thank you a lot! I am afraid that I will trouble you more, so see you in the comments space :-) (I’m sorry – great books for my master thesis – I found it only here)
file is off-line
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