Playing The Future: Amazon.ca: Douglas Rushkoff: Books

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Three years after the original publication of Playing the Future: What We Can Learn from Digital Kids in 1996, this breathlessly polemical defense of the techno-savvy youth culture of the '90s already reads like a document from another era. Back then, the Internet was still a strange new force, instinctively embraced by kids who'd grown up playing video games, instinctively distrusted by the grownups who ran the mainstream media. Standing up for the emergent digital culture--loosely associated with suspicious activities like raves, role-playing games, and piercing--took nerve and optimism.

And Douglas Rushkoff here supplies both in abundance. His argument: contemporary "screenagers," as he calls them, aren't being warped by new technologies, they're adapting to them. Their relationship to play, work, spirituality, and politics all reflect the contours of a new world shaped by the liberating logic of digital networks and chaos theory. It's a better world, Rushkoff assures us, and if the grownups know what's good for them, they will stop looking askance at the ways of digital youth and start trying to learn from them instead.

Ultimately, Rushkoff seems a lot more interested in making his argument than in making it stick. He flies from one loose logical connection to another--the secret link between fractal math and snowboarding, the parallel between Web browser interfaces and Federal Reserve notes--and he alternates between near-brilliance and utter implausibility as he goes.

But even nowadays, when the heated rhetoric that met the first wave of digital culture is generally giving way to more nuanced analysis, there's something contagious about Rushkoff's passionate faith that the kids are all right. He may not convince you, but after this intellectual joy ride is over, that may not matter. Like any good child of the '90s, you'll want to believe. --Julian Dibbell

Review

"Makes dazzling links between chaos theory and Rodney King, snowboarding and William Gibson, race culture and Star Wars ... the literary equivalent of U2's Zoo TV ... Rushkoff is courageous enough to stand up against fashionable gloom by putting his faith in today's 'screenagers.'"

-- Vox

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4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A startling accurate perspective, Jan 28 2001

By

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Playing The Future (Paperback)

I admit it. I approached this book with a degree of skepticism. As a futurist, I'm interested in reading what others say about trends, but this one didn't strike me as worth more than a skim.

Whoa! What a surprise! I started underlining on the second page-of the introduction!

This book delivers a fascinating look at youth culture and relates that culture-and its implications-to our future. It's an enjoyable read, exploring a wide range of aspects of the culture of today's youth, our future employees and leaders. I gained a great deal of insight into the Millennial Generation, and I've been studying them for a while myself.

Every once in a while, I shook my head in bewilderment or struggled to get a connection, but that was seldom. As I moved from page to page, I had a recurring urge to discuss parts with my 14-year old step-daughter. Her response to my amazement and learning would probably be something like, "Duh. Don't you know this? Don't you get it?" Don't get me wrong; Samantha is not like all the different types of kids described in the book. But, she fits where she wants to fit in the picture . . . which is part of the picture.

The author is himself a card-carrying member of Generation X. This perspective is manifested in his writing, both in style and language and topic. I felt like I was getting a private interview to gain a deeper understanding of the teens and twenty-somethings. While I won't admit to being comfortable with all that I read, I do confess to having learned something. Actually, a lot of somethings. Now with a greater appreciation of today's youth, their culture, and their perspective on the future, I feel more secure in what will come in the years ahead.

Screenagers, Rushkoff's moniker for the generation he presents to us, is a valid and worthwhile study. Page after page delivers food for thought and consideration. Are you ready for the future? To know the future? We're surrounded by the future-and its movers and shakers-today. Better get to know these folks, how they think, what they expect, and where they're going.

Now that I've written my review, I'll give the book to my 14-year old, already a voracious reader. I wonder what she'll have to say about this evaluation and study of her generation. My guess is that she'll agree. . . and then go on to tell me more. What an intriguing discussion this will be . . . .

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5.0 out of 5 stars In pure Rushkoff fashion... This book is fantastic, July 18 2000

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Daniel Zuccarelli (Mount Laurel, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Playing The Future (Paperback)

When it comes to new media, no one does it better than Rushkoff. This book, "Media Virus", and especially "Coercion"... all books shed excellent light on the information age.. and not just the doom and gloom or bubblegum optimism we usually get thrown at us. Rushkoff takes everything apart, explains it all in realistic ways, then puts it all back together for us. Like Coercion, this book should be on the required reading lists of every worthwhile college in the country. I am better prepared to handle the world and my job (computers) for having read this book.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts on modern, popular cultural anthropology, April 18 2000

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"-jals-" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing The Future (Paperback)

I found this book while browsing in the anthropological section of a bookstore (where it belongs). This is a tremendously hopeful book, even if it is occasionally circular. Everything from vampire games to grafitti is explained as a recapitulation of society's previous values, just accelerated and adapted by the newest version of human--teenagers. Rushkoff deftly analyzes the existance in which young adults are operating and creating as part of a bigger, brighter reality. These anaylses are always interesting, but they occasionally seem over-thought and repetetive. This book is coherent and well-presented--the author certainly knows what he's talking about, even if the reader doesn't always agree. A wonderful, insightful book that gives credit where credit is due--to the millions of young adults who manage to operate efficiently in an increasingly complex and chaotic world, even if their parents don't get it.

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4.0 out of 5 stars I hate having to enter titles for reviews
One of the most intellectual books I've read in a long time. Rushkoff's arguments are interesting, and we kids will always like to hear that we are capable of making our own... Read more

Published on Feb 10 2000 by ppjueck