The birth of the internet was the beginning of a whole new way of life. We learn differently, connect differently and spend our free time differently, all because of the internet. Have you weighed the pros and cons of how we’ve weaved technology into almost ever fiber of our daily lives? Whether you look at it through a social or psychological lens, the internet will no doubt have a lasting effect on how we live and work.

Here is a list of books from the JMRL catalog that discuss the consequences of the internet as well as other forms of technology:

Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better by Clive Thompson – Shows how every technological advance, from the printing press to the Internet, has been disparaged, caused hand-wringing, and has generated anxious predictions of doom, but actually has augmented human life for the better.

The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael Harris – Citing the current generation’s unique experience of life on and without the Internet, a chronicle of the modern world’s massive shift to an information-driven, online existence evaluates the connected world’s potentially costly absence of silence, contemplation and solitude.

The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age by Catherine Steiner-Adair – An internationally recognized clinical psychologist, drawing on real-life stories from her work, offers insight and advice to help parents successfully navigate today’s technologically advanced world and turn the focus back to family and meaningful relationships.

To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evgeny Morozov – Argues that technology is changing the way we understand human society and discusses how the disciplines of politics, culture, public debate, morality, and humanism will be affected when responsibility for them is delegated to technology.

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr – Discusses the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Internet, and how it may be transforming our neural pathways for the worse.

I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy by Lori B. Andrews – A leading social networks specialist from the Illinois Institute of Technology and government advisor on ethical issues regarding new technologies presents a sobering exposé on the widespread misuse of personal online data and its potential for compromising safety and credibility, recommending specific legal codes to govern personal rights on the Internet.