Fully Connected: Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Overload

Entrepreneur and media commentator Hobsbawm isn’t antitechnology; she just thinks we don’t have a good system for managing our use of it. Society works on a series of networks and we thrive on information spread, yet many communications can be harmful. The process by which we connect “the right knowledge with the right people at the right time” she refers to as “social health,” while asking how we can increase our healthy connectedness, and cut down on the kind that harms us. Too much connectedness is not just overload, but madness. Connectedness has provided convenience, yes, but also a “radical reshaping” of the world and the way people live. Hobsbawm does not advise readers to disconnect entirely, but to develop a system for better managing their connections. She delves into the full scope of the problem, from how we connect professionally to how we connect romantically, and offers six techniques for swiftly making behavioral changes. Her detail-rich writing is strong and convincing; this is more of a meditation on connectedness than a prescriptive approach to achieving it, but Hobsbawm’s thoughtful exploration is refreshingly low on tech panic and high on insight. Agent: Toby Mundy, Toby Mundy Associates. (June)