You’ve got to pair these two books together. You can read them in tandem; a chapter from Googled, followed by another from Programmed. Both flow well together, and aren’t entirely written in dissimilar ways; they complement each other very well. Each is driven by healthy skepticism. There are these ever more pervasive technologies in our life (say, web search on the one hand), and unlike “disruptive” technologies in the past (as Auletta’s said in his first few pages), you’re not really talking about something concrete here, say the advent of the commercial airliner, or a microwave. Instead, you’re dealing with abstract things, i.e. ideas, information, “knowledge” (Googled). When you couple that with what sociologists have known for years about media—that it intrinsically socializes us, “programs us,” Rushkoff would say—you’ve got a very dangerous mix; that is, potentially dangerous anyway. So it’s important to read both, and they’re not very difficult reads at all. They’re worth buying because, like other well written journalistic pieces, the narratives age well. In fact, Googled was published a couple of years ago, at this rate. And it’s only grow in its contextual relevance, as Google makes its ways onto TV and other spaces of traditional media (“encroaching” Auletta says).
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