WISH I WERE HERE

Are you bored of the endless scroll of your social media feed? Do you skim articles on your screen in search of intellectual stimulation that never arrives? If so, this book is the philosophical lifeline you have been waiting for.

Offering a timely meditation on the profound effects of constant immersion in technology, also known as the Interface, WISH I WERE HERE draws on philosophical analysis of boredom and happiness to examine the pressing issues of screen addiction.

While scrolling, swiping, and clicking suggest purposeful action, such as choosing and connecting with others, Kingwell argues that people are being trapped into "addictive engagement." Repeated flicks of the finger provide merely the shadow of meaning, by reducing us to scattered data fragments, Twitter feeds, Instagram posts, shopping preferences, and text trends captured by algorithms.

Written in accessible language that references both classical philosophers and contemporary critics, WISH I WERE HERE turns to philosophy for a cure to the widespread unease that something is amiss in modern waking life.

Mark Kingwell is professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and a fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada and the UK's Royal Society of Arts. Holding a Ph.D. from Yale, Kingwell is a critic and public intellectual who writes and speaks widely on political theory, contemporary politics, public art, and architecture - contributing markedly to public discourse and efforts to broaden the scope of public philosophy. He is a contributing editor of Harper's magazine and a regular op-ed writer for the Globe and Mail. He has authored or co-authored 19 books, among them the national bestsellers BETTER LIVING, THE WORLD WE WANT, CONCRETE REVERIES, GLENN GOULD, and CATCH AND RELEASE. His work has been translated into 10 languages.