Meandered a bit in the middle and seemed a little too elitist when failing to address the democratizing effect of providing greater access to information. But overall left with much good stuff to think about, especially in a pandemic when life has been reduced to the digital. What interactions are healthy and worth the lack of absence and which ones are just to distract from the diminished interior life?

Solitude was a compelling read with focus, solid writing, an important theme and a narrative that actually made sense. Absence on the other hand, while still containing a few salient points, was disjointed and made weird segues into other topics. I found it really hard to keep going on reading this book and it was a real struggle to finish it. Not Harris' best work by far but that doesn't mean he's not capable of awesome work - read Solitude.

I've talked about, recommended and pulled parts of this book away to think more about since finishing it only a couple days ago -

why? Perhaps because it was for me a winning combination of a seemingly sincere journalistic rather than highbrow examination of ideas with a candid, even droll memoir - to me an irresistible pairing perfect for the subject matter !

Interesting read. Good starting place for those interested in technology, distraction, and absence.

Mr Harris writes on how his age cohort (which is mine as well) may be the last to remember what it was like before the internet. As such, we are in a position to know what we are giving up as we increasingly get absorbed by this powerful technology.

He most often quotes Marshall McLuhan and shares several anecdotes from his gay Canadian. His 'meditation' was quite competently done though I don't think readimg about his internet sabbatical was all that interesting.

There's some good info in this book, and its premise is compelling: Those of us born before 1985 are among the last people on earth who will remember what life was like before the internet. Fascinating notion, and one I assumed the book would really delve into, but alas, it did not. The author does raise valid points about connectedness and solitude (yin and yang), which I found thoughtful and on point, though I wonder if it would have made a better long-form article.

Technology is ubiquitous. Take a conscious break every so often. Live a real rather than virtual life.

This book has some boring chapters, I can't deny that. And I'm not sure I was left with any great epiphany; I take stock of my involvement in the networked world fairly often. But it was good to hear some of my own thoughts about being in between generations--at home in the world of technology for all intents and purposes, and yet often very suspicious of its role in my own life--echoed by someone else in the same generation. I'm going to do some small tech adjustments--as I've tweeted (OH THE IRONY), I don't want my friends to text people while they're with me, and I'll do them the same courtesy. All in all, this is thought-provoking, and if you too struggle with where we are, networked to the wazoo (and more to come, surely), then you really should read this.