Challenging the Phenomena of Technology [Hardcover]

What is 'technology'? What does it help us to do? What does it force us to consider about our experience of being in the world?In Challenging the Phenomena of Technology, technology is positioned as an experience with specific features, rather than as a class of objects, and this enables a reflection on the ways in which amateurs and experts interact with the artefacts that all humans rely upon. Using e-readers, such as the Kindle and iPad, as a case study, Hayler argues that the use of technology is both more complicated and more human than public discussion often gives it credit for, forcing us to consider its impacts on perception, cognition, and what it means to know anything at all.What is 'technology'? What does it help us to do? What does it force us to consider about our experience of being in the world?In Challenging the Phenomena of Technology, technology is positioned as an experience with specific features, rather than as a class of objects, and this enables a reflection on the ways in which amateurs and experts interact with the artefacts that all humans rely upon. Using e-readers, such as the Kindle and iPad, as a case study, Hayler argues that the use of technology is both more complicated and more human than public discussion often gives it credit for, forcing us to consider its impacts on perception, cognition, and what it means to know anything at all.

Dr. Matt Hayler spent three years as a teaching fellow at the University of Exeter where he developed modules in Digital Studies and Critical Theory. During this time he acted as the network coordinator for the AHRC Cognitive Futures in the Humanities research network and spoke at the second TEDxExeter conference on the beauty inherent in technological use. He currently lectures in post-1945 literature at the University of Birmingham.