Sunday Book Review: Writing Bytes

This week's New York Times Sunday Book Review is all about technology. One feature asks accomplished writers across genres how technology has affected storytelling and an interactive discussion sparks debate among readers on how technology has affected the reading experience. But in addition are a number of reviews for new books with topics ranging from Twitter and Amazon to the app generation and laziness in the Internet age. While the irony of books about the very technologies and platforms that are leading to their demise in the traditional print form was not lost on me, the list of new releases reveal how complex the relationship between humans and technology is and how the new digital world in which we live has truly represented a paradigm shift in society.

Below is a list of the books reviewed and, regardless of topic, all relate to the issues surrounding digital marketing today.

• Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson
  "Has the Internet age made us lazy, or has it produced, as Clive Thompson says, a 'radical new style of human intelligence'?"

• Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age By Alice E. Marwick
  "A study of Silicon Valley Web enthusiasts concludes that social media produce self-promoting, competitive corporate citizens." 

• Focus by Daniel Goleman
  "Daniel Goleman explores the link between mental focus and success."

• The Internet Police: How Crime Went Online — and the Cops Followed by Nate Anderson
  "Hackers and cybercrooks aren’t the only ones lurking on the Internet. The police are there, too."

• Dogfight by Fred Vogelstein
  "A journalist goes behind the bitter rivalry between Apple and Google, and how it’s reshaping the way we think about technology."
• The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon By Brad Stone
  "The story of Jeff Bezos and the $140 billion company he founded."

•  Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
  "Nick Bilton profiles the founders of Twitter and details their fight for control of the company."
• Writing on the Wall by Tom Standage
  "Twitter and Facebook are just the latest incarnations of a tradition that dates back 2,000 years, Tom Standage says."

• The App Generation by Howard Gardner & Katie Davis
  "Teenage life in a wired age."
• Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman
  "A psychologist examines our basic need to connect with others"