Book Review: Restless Devices

Restless Devices

Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age

by Felicia Wu Song

Pub Date 30 Nov 2021 |

InterVarsity Press, IVP Academic

Christian | Religion & Spirituality

I am reviewing a copy of Restless Devices through InterVarsity Press and Netgalley:

Unfortunately in this day and age we are being formed by our devices. Today’s digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God.

Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the “industrializing” effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital “powers that be” might seem like a losing battle. Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of digital ecosystems.

In this book Felicia Wu Song combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions: What kind of people are we becoming with personal…