Here's a selection of books that I've recently read and liked.
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Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings on the Internet. The shamed are people like us who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and they're being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job.
We are defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control. [easyazon_link identifier=”1594487138″ locale=”US” tag=”martinlea-20″]More information.[/easyazon_link]
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What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens’ lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert Danah Boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens' use of social media. She explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Ultimately, Boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers’ ability to become informed, thoughtful, and engaged citizens through their online interactions.
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We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.
Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don’t have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves.
We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents’ attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work, we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online, we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with – a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square.
The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity.
But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures.
Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human—and humanizing—thing that we do.
The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start, we have each other.
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More academic research articles are being published than ever before: by most estimates more than 1 million per year. That means that on the same day that your paper is published it will compete with more than 2700 others for your colleagues' attention! Susan Gay shows you how to to make your paper stand out!
No wonder that online indexes and databases like Pubmed are struggling to keep up. How to make your article stand out from the pack? The great news is that there are many online tools, most of them free and simple to use, that will help your paper gain more readers and citations. This book will quickly teach you to use them effectively.
Written with a focus on authors working in the sciences and medicine, in this short book by acclaimed author Susan Gay you will learn how to leverage online resources to enhance the visibility of your article to your colleagues.
From simple yet powerful steps like writing an article title and abstract that makes your article more visible in Google search engine results to harnessing the power of new social media platforms, you'll be better equipped to gain more readers and citations.
Major topics covered include:
- How to draft a title and abstract to gain greater visibility in Google and academic search engines
- Use citations to get citations
- Using email to share your article without spam
- Learn how to effectively Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- New social media platforms specifically for academia like Academia.edu, ResearchGate, and Mendeley
- How to create a high-impact personal website
- How to share your paper on Wikipedia and Scholarpedia
- Leveraging high-visibility discussion forums to drive more readers to your article
- Understanding article citation data
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Numerous reasons cause adopted teenagers to reconnect with their birth family via Facebook, creating new challenges for adoption today and tomorrow. Incorporating theory, practice, anecdotes, metaphors, diagrams, models and case studies, this accessible book, written by an experienced adopter, clearly explains these complex issues. It maps connections between trauma, child development, grief, adolescence, contact, truth telling and parenting styles; offering fresh perspectives and strategies for parents and professionals.
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