The New Media Invasion

From the 15th century until the mid-1990s media based on the printed word--including books magazines newspapers and journals--dominated society. Today however an onslaught of digital media centered on the Internet is developing at a breathtaking pace destabilizing the very idea of printed media and fundamentally reshaping our world in the process. This study explores how Internet entities like Amazon YouTube Facebook Wikipedia and Google and gadgets such as digital cameras cell phones video games robots drones and all things MacIntosh have affected everything from the book industry and copyright law to how we conduct social relationships and consider knowledge. Including a chronology of significant events in the history of the digital explosion this investigation of the often overlooked shadow side of new technology chronicles life during such a radical societal shift and follows the process whereby one world disintegrates while another takes its place.