Book Review: Information and Communication Technologies in Everyday Life: A Concise Introduction and Research Guide
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approach makes it difficult to achieve. Then again, this is a grandiose project that may not have been his aim and to have covered the range of alternative internet use that he has and to place it in a theoretical framework, albeit an underdeveloped one, is most useful. When reading this book you get the distinct feeling that Atton is working through his own dilemma of wanting to recognize the ‘new imaginary’ (Poster, 1999: 17) potential of the internet while not ‘being seduced by its apparent possibilities’ (p. xi). This book does not celebrate new media technology itself as a brand new age of creative political radicalism which is to be welcomed. Atton argues for the unremarkableness of the internet stressing its hybridity and connectedness to old technological forms, because of this, the book is cloaked in a deepening scepticism towards the internet as either alternative, democratizing or liberatory. While I understand where he is coming from, I am a little disappointed with this final outcome. Atton may be surprised to realize that on reading his book I felt a reinvigorated optimism concerning the possibilities of a radical media, creative expression and democratic political renewal, despite his ever more negative appraisal.