newYou can listen to the Fox News article!
Kristin Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist for Commentary magazine, a frequent podcast contributor, and a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Virginia. Rosen is also the author of a life-changing book, The Annihilation of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World.
Every book changes the reader's life. At the very least, every book consumes time that can never be regained. But some books have far-reaching effects. For example, one year ago, when I came home for the summer after my first year of college, my older brother's books included a book called “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” This short story by Alexander Solzhenitsyn had a profound effect on me. Before reading this book, I knew nothing about the Gulag, the great suffering of those imprisoned there, or the threat of totalitarian ambitions. (I wasn't in high school yet, so I don't mean to criticize my teachers in the 1960s, but I think it's a good book for any middle school student to read.)
Of the thousands of books I have been fortunate enough to read, very few explicitly suggest I change my own behavior, much less successfully do so, but Rosen's book does just that, and she succeeded before I finished it.
The Annihilation of Experience is about technology and the many effects it has on the world at large and on all readers. Example: “Our personal technologies, especially our mobile phones, are taking up huge amounts of our citizens’ attention.” Of course, it’s hard to argue with this, but as you read anecdote after anecdote and research summary, it’s hard not to denounce your willing, perhaps unwitting, complicity in technology’s continued subjugation of everything in your life if you use your phone to scroll or text while waiting in line at the supermarket or pharmacy.
Click here to read more FOX News Opinion
Man sending a text message on his mobile phone (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
More broadly, Rosen offers a succinct but wonderfully conversational exploration of the impact of the many by-products of the ubiquity and rapidity of technology on our world: the decline of drawing by children and adults, the demise of handwriting, the banishment of boredom, the rise of road rage and pedestrian collisions. “So much of our daily lives are already dominated by technology, with us constantly looking down at our smartphones and computers,” Rosen says, reflecting on how museum-going has changed dramatically since the iPhone came out, and how not only that particular set of experiences has been shaped, if not distorted, by technology.
How to Optimize Your Sleep with Apple Watch
Rosen is no Luddite, but she doesn't condemn technology per se. She makes observations like those made by Jonathan Haidt in his seminal book, The Anxious Generation, but unlike Haidt, Rosen doesn't focus solely on kids, but adults (and, as noted above, Rosen doesn't offer specific policy recommendations, but her message is hard to miss).
Click here to get the FOX News app
I first heard about this book when Commentary's editor-in-chief John Podhoretz called it “horrifying” on a podcast. It raised my eyebrows, so I asked my producer to send me the book, and then I read it through and discussed certain passages with my wife and houseguests. They weren't put off, and everything I told them sparked great conversations and personal anecdotes. I think it's a good test for this book, and it's definitely an encouraging book for publishers.
I'll say it in the strongest terms possible: If you're reading this column online, order a book. You can still check your phone and get your news and opinions here. But when you've finished reading The Disappearance of Experience, you'll look at your phone differently. You'll look at it in a whole different way.
Hugh Hewitt is the host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” broadcast weekdays from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC is available. He is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel's News Roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6:00 PM ET. A native of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law since 1996. Hewitt began his eponymous radio show in Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national news television stations, hosted television shows on PBS and MSNBC, contributed to all major American newspapers, authored 12 books, and moderated numerous Republican presidential debates. He most recently moderated the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in 2015-2016. In his radio show and column, Hewitt focuses on the Constitution, national security, American politics, the Cleveland Browns and the Guardians. During his 40 years of broadcasting experience, Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In this column, we preview the top stories that will be headlining today's radio/television shows.
To read more articles by Hugh Hewitt click here
