'While reading Tyranny of the Moment, I found myself both charmed and challenged. The subject is an important one, and Thomas Hylland Eriksen handles it with style, a light touch, and many amiable provocations.' Todd Gitlin The turn of the millennium is characterized by exponential growth in everything related to communication -- from the internet and email to air traffic. Tyranny of the Moment deals with some of the most perplexing paradoxes of this new information age. Who would have expected that apparently time-saving technology results in time being scarcer than ever? And has this seemingly limitless access to information led to confusion rather than enlightenment? Eriksen argues that slow time -- private periods where we are able to think and correspond without interruption -- is now one of the most precious resources we have. Since we are theoretically 'online' 24 hours a day, we must fight for the right to be unavailable -- the right to live and think more slowly. It is not only that working hours have become longer -- Eriksen also shows how the logic of this new information technology has permeated every area of our lives. Exploring phenomena such as the internet, wap telephones, multi- channel television and email, Eriksen examines this non-linear and fragmented way of communicating to reveal how it affects working conditions in the economy, changes in family life and, ultimately, personal identity. Eriksen argues that a culture lacking a sense of its past, and therefore of its future, is effectively static. Although solutions are suggested, he demonstrates that there is no easy way out.

本书作者桑德拉·L.卡尔弗特博士是美国乔治敦大学儿童数字媒体研究中心的主任，几十年来长期从事媒体与儿童发展的实验研究，是美国目前公认的媒体发展心理学研究的权威。在《信息时代的儿童发展》一书中，卡尔弗特博士阐述了科技逐渐融入了人类文化过程中所存在的诸多问题，特别关注了那些业已存在的和即将出一的信息技术对儿童的影响，就信息技术对儿童的思想和生活的作用提出了一些重要的问题。并在些基础上深入分析了这些技术产生的影响对父母、老师和政策制定者的深远意义。

In this second volume of The Information Age trilogy, with an extensive new preface following the recent global economic crisis, Manuel Castells deals with the social, political, and cultural dynamics associated with the technological transformation of our societies and with the globalization of the economy.
Extensive new preface examines how dramatic recent events have transformed the socio-political landscape of our world
Applies Castells’ hypotheses to contemporary issues such as Al Qaeda and global terrorist networks, American unilateralism and the crisis of political legitimacy throughout the world
A brilliant account of social, cultural, and political conflict and struggle all over the world
Analyzes the importance of cultural, religious, and national identity as sources of meaning for people, and its implications for social movement
Throws new light on the dynamics of global and local change

This first book in Castells' groundbreaking trilogy, with a substantial new preface, highlights the economic and social dynamics of the information age and shows how the network society has now fully risen on a global scale. Groundbreaking volume on the impact of the age of information on all aspects of society Includes coverage of the influence of the internet and the net-economy Describes the accelerating pace of innovation and social transformation Based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe