Restless Devices - by Felicia Wu Song (Paperback)

About the Book

We're being formed by our devices. Unpacking the soft tyranny of the digital age, Felicia Wu Song combines insights from psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and theology as she considers digital practices through the lens of "liturgy" and formation. Exploring pathways of meaningful resistance found in Christian tradition, this resource offers practical experiments for individual and communal change.

Book Synopsis

We're being formed by our devices. Unpacking the soft tyranny of the digital age, Felicia Wu Song combines insights from psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and theology as she considers digital practices through the lens of "liturgy" and formation. Exploring pathways of meaningful resistance found in Christian tradition, this resource offers practical experiments for individual and communal change.

Review Quotes

"Engineers may build our digital tools, but we need wise social scientists like Felicia Wu Song to help us understand their wider impact. This timely book not only illuminates the challenges of a society saturated by digital technology but also points a way forward with practical guidance for living faithfully in a digital age."

"Felicia Wu Song begins with an all-too-plausible premise: that today's young people are best understood not as digital natives but rather as an indicator species. If this is the case, perhaps their rising levels of anxiety and loneliness point to a troubling toxicity in our digital ecosystem. Song's pastoral book also guides us toward ways that we can all begin the work of restoring a polluted social ecology so that we might enjoy healthier relationships with one another and with God."

"I have been looking for this book for years. Dr. Song brings the top scholarship and the deepest Christian reflection to bear on the important spiritual topic of how we faithfully engage our devices. In this digital age, which requires new forms of moral and spiritual reflection, there are few topics that could be more relevant or more needed. This is a book I will read again and again."

"Combining her expertise in sociology and theology, Felicia Wu Song searingly diagnoses the structural problems of the digital world within our culture that idolizes productivity. Restless Devices sparks our imagination in order to free us from our slavery to technology into deeper communion with God and each other. Full of fresh insights and practical experiments, this book helps increase our appetite for being fully human."

"Digital media has shaped our spiritual lives and churches in profound ways, yet we have few guides to navigate this new terrain. I have longed for a book like Restless Devices to be written. Felicia Wu Song compellingly examines the addictive qualities of digital media-its ubiquity and totalizing power. But her depth of expertise and profound Christian imagination allow her to go further than mere critique. She offers us practical hope in the 'counterliturgies' of the Christian faith. I highly recommend this powerful work of spiritual formation to all who seek to live humanely and faithfully in our digital age."

"Dr. Song unpacks a modern digital landscape that is cracked and parched-but she doesn't leave us in our thirst. Instead, she extends her hand and guides us back to the source of living water by way of a well-trodden path she has traveled with her students throughout her professorship. It is a true gift to journey with Dr. Song toward a reimagined relationship with our devices-one where we're transformed less by them, and more by Christ."

"Finally, a book that goes beyond simply lamenting our cyborg-like reliance on soul-hollowing electronic devices. We've all read about the increased distractions, the insecurities, and the polarization (intentionally!) generated by our attention economy. But Dr. Felicia Wu Song offers us something unique: an alternative theology and praxis that doesn't require demonizing or rejecting digital tools. Interpreting our current technological situation within a fully embodied Christian framework that stresses our fundamental need for community, Dr. Song teaches us practical liturgies that lead to true growth within our current context rather than retreating from it. Beautifully written, this is a valuable contribution to Christians navigating our brave new world."

"Good sociology spurs relevant theological inquiry. Sound theology has powerful sociological implications. Restless Devices has both good sociology and sound theology, making it a prophetic book for our times. I am grateful for Dr. Song's work, which shares how we can move from permanent connectivity with our devices to abiding with Jesus in an attuned, embodied, and collective manner."

"Thanks to Dr. Felicia Song, we now have a spiritual guide through the undiscovered country of life in today's digital colonies. While recognizing the benefits of digital technology, Dr. Song argues that we need more than apps, retreats, and yoga to wrestle with its pervasiveness. We need a vision of our circumstances that helps us imagine what kind of life we hope to live and how we can get there. She finds this vision in liturgical and spiritual formation practices that are grounded in Christian tradition. Dr. Song's diagnosis and prescription is a welcome and much-needed antidote for the technological disenchantment of our times."

About the Author

Felicia Wu Song (PhD, University of Virginia) is a sociologist and author of Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence and Place in the Digital Age and Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together. With almost twenty years' experience serving as faculty at Louisiana State University and Westmont College, she combines her training in history, communication studies, and sociology with a personal interest in theology to speak and teach on matters of spiritual formation and well-being in a digitally-saturated society. Living in the Pacific Northwest, she enjoys discovering a good food truck with her husband and two teenaged children. For her latest activities, see http: //feliciawusong.com.