Distracted
A Philosophy of Cars and Phones
Published on 25. June 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-1-5179-1656-5 (ISBN)
Description
Applying insights from philosophy and cognitive science to address the urgent issue of smartphone-induced distracted driving
Although the dangers of texting while driving are widely known, many people resist the idea that phone usage will impair their driving. And connectivity features in new cars have only made using technology behind the wheel more tempting. What will it take to change people's minds and behavior? Robert Rosenberger contends that a better understanding of why this combination of technologies is so dangerous could effectively adjust both habits and laws.
Rosenberger brings together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science to leverage a postphenomenological perspective that reveals how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Reviewing decades of empirical studies in cognitive science, he shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use-habits that may wrest our attention away from the road.
Distracted develops innovative concepts for understanding technology-related habits and the ways that our relationships to our devices influence how we perceive the world. In turn, these ideas can help drivers be more cognizant of the effect that smartphone usage has on their perceptions, better inform efforts to enact stricter regulations, and help us all to be more reflective about the technologies that shape our lives.
Although the dangers of texting while driving are widely known, many people resist the idea that phone usage will impair their driving. And connectivity features in new cars have only made using technology behind the wheel more tempting. What will it take to change people's minds and behavior? Robert Rosenberger contends that a better understanding of why this combination of technologies is so dangerous could effectively adjust both habits and laws.
Rosenberger brings together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science to leverage a postphenomenological perspective that reveals how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Reviewing decades of empirical studies in cognitive science, he shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use-habits that may wrest our attention away from the road.
Distracted develops innovative concepts for understanding technology-related habits and the ways that our relationships to our devices influence how we perceive the world. In turn, these ideas can help drivers be more cognizant of the effect that smartphone usage has on their perceptions, better inform efforts to enact stricter regulations, and help us all to be more reflective about the technologies that shape our lives.
Reviews / Votes
"Ambitious and daring, Distracted is brilliantly written, and it pulls off the fine line between scholarly rigor and readability. Applying a philosophical arsenal, Robert Rosenberger works to shift our intuitions about phone usage in cars. The range of scholarly references is astounding: legal scholarship, policy, cellphone use, psychology, cognition, behavior, and an encounter at the end with moral theory. This is philosophy of technology at its most productive and valuable."-Robert P. Crease, author of The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory"The prominent philosopher Robert Rosenberger has written an absolutely brilliant, exciting, thorough, and well-researched book that addresses issues of distraction and driving that will engage both the general public and academics. A treasure trove of empirical studies, Distracted innovatively broadens the postphenomenological spectrum and offers a profound philosophical alternative to the cognitive theories that have dominated distraction research."-Cathrine Hasse, author of Posthumanist Learning: What Robots and Cyborgs Teach us About Being Ultra-social
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Minnesota
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
9 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5179-1656-5 (9781517916565)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Robert Rosenberger is professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. He is author of Callous Objects: Designs against the Homeless (Minnesota, 2017), editor of The Critical Ihde, and coeditor of Postphenomenological Investigations: Essays on Human-Technology Relations and Postphenomenology and Imaging: How to Read Technology.