Kiowa County Public Library District

"Data versus Democracy investigates and explores how, in the era of social media, human cognition, algorithmic recommendation systems, and human psychology are all working together to reinforce (and exaggerate) human bias. The dangerous confluence of these factors is driving media narratives, influencing opinions, and possibly changing election results. In this book, algorithmic recommendations, clickbait, familiarity bias, propaganda, and other pivotal...

Today's babies often make their debut on social media with the very first sonogram. They begin interacting with screens at around four months old. But is this good news or bad news? A wonderful opportunity to connect around the world? Or the first step in creating a generation of addled screen zombies? Many have been quick to declare this the dawn of a neurological and emotional crisis, but solid science on the subject is surprisingly hard to come...

The deputy editor of The Futurist magazine discusses the impact the increased use of computer-aided forecasting will have on everyday life, cataloging the possible benefits and potential abuses of predictive analytics over the next decade. --Publisher's description.

"From acclaimed tech writer Clive Thompson, a brilliant and immersive anthropological reckoning with the most powerful tribe in the world today, computer programmers - where they come from, how they think, what makes for greatness in their world, and what should give us pause"--

"From Erica Dhawan, co-author of Get Big Things Done, the definitive guide to communicating and connecting wherever you are. Email replies that show up a week later. Video chats full of "oops sorry no you go" and "can you hear me?!" Ambiguous text-messages. Weird punctuation you can't make heads or tails of. Is it any wonder communication takes us so much time and effort to figure out? How did we lose our innate capacity to understand each other?...

Essayist Siegel is known for passionately arguing contrarian points of view, which is why he's the perfect person to write a critical book about the Web that has almost nothing to do with technology and everything to do with what it's doing to the people who use it. Siegel forces readers to radically rethink a familiar medium, arguing that the Web and complementary developments--from reality television to the emergence of business prophets like Malcolm...

"A practical guide to "narrative thinking," and why it matters in a world defined by data. In The Sea We Swim In, Frank Rose leads us to a new understanding of stories and their role in our lives. For decades, experts from many fields-psychologists, economists, advertising and marketing executives-failed to register the power of narrative. Scientists thought stories were frivolous. Economists were knee-deep in theory. Marketers just wanted to cut...

"Google. Facebook. Twitter. Repeat. We live in a world unimaginable even a few decades ago, one like no other in human history. It's a parallel world where we can be on the move in the real world, yet always hooked into an alternative time and place. And although it's a two-dimensional world of sight and sound, it offers instant information, connected identities, and constant novelty. In this world, our screen technologies are increasingly where we...