Book ID Request: Book on Internet & Culture with Brin/Page interview
November 28, 2013 5:39 PM Subscribe
In an opening chapter of this book which I read a year or two ago, the author describes a meeting/discussion with Google's Brin and Page, during which one of them refuses to take his eyes off the mobile device he's holding (if memory serves, the author requests the Googler to be present and not distracted/have his attention split by his little device, to which the latter responds laconically in the negative).
The situation described in the forgotten book came to mind when I was reading the recent Google Glass Etiquette thread, in which the brave tetra-pak wrote, People using Glass have what seems to be an unintentional and very off-putting tic, which is that while you're talking with them their eyeline will start to shift or change focus. I presume this is because of something happening on their Glass, but the effect is that you can't tell if they're still listening, if you're boring them, or if they're preoccupied because something more pertinent than the two of you interacting is happening..., and I was struck by the similarity between the unmannerly behavior of the chief googler and that of his Glass-wearing customers.
It would have been a fairly popular book on the Internet that came out around three years ago. This is not the sort of book I would bother purchasing, so it was undoubtedly borrowed from the library, and I have unfortunately not kept a record of my loans. Ring any bells?
The situation described in the forgotten book came to mind when I was reading the recent Google Glass Etiquette thread, in which the brave tetra-pak wrote, People using Glass have what seems to be an unintentional and very off-putting tic, which is that while you're talking with them their eyeline will start to shift or change focus. I presume this is because of something happening on their Glass, but the effect is that you can't tell if they're still listening, if you're boring them, or if they're preoccupied because something more pertinent than the two of you interacting is happening..., and I was struck by the similarity between the unmannerly behavior of the chief googler and that of his Glass-wearing customers.
It would have been a fairly popular book on the Internet that came out around three years ago. This is not the sort of book I would bother purchasing, so it was undoubtedly borrowed from the library, and I have unfortunately not kept a record of my loans. Ring any bells?
Best answer: I was just coming here to say it was from the Ken Auletta New Yorker piece.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:42 PM on November 28, 2013
posted by KokuRyu at 7:42 PM on November 28, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks, that's it! (I did wonder if it might not have been from a New Yorker piece, but I had a vague memory of the passage being at the beginning of a book; clearly I was mistaken.)
posted by tenderly at 7:51 PM on November 28, 2013
posted by tenderly at 7:51 PM on November 28, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by purpleclover at 6:25 PM on November 28, 2013