{"product_id":"second-life-having-a-child-in-the-digital-age-hardcover","title":"Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAmanda Hess\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Second Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a tender, perceptive account of pregnancy and early motherhood--and a stylish confrontation with the demented landscape of digital parenting content.\" --Anna Wiener, author of \u003ci\u003eUncanny Valley\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs an internet culture critic for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Amanda Hess had built a reputation among readers as a sharp observer of the seductions and manipulations of online life. But when Hess discovered she was pregnant with her first child, she found herself unexpectedly rattled by a digital identity crisis of her own. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the summer of 2020, a routine ultrasound detected a mysterious abnormality in Hess's baby. Without hesitation, she reached for her phone, looking for answers. But rather than allaying her anxieties, her search sucked her into the destabilizing morass of the internet, and she was vulnerable--more than ever--to conspiracy, myth, judgment, commerce, and obsession. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Hess documents her escalating relationship with the digital world, she identifies how technologies act as portals to troubling ideologies, ethical conflicts, and existential questions, and she illuminates how the American traditions of eugenics, surveillance, and hyper-individualism are recycled through these shiny products for a new generation of parents and their children. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt once funny, heartbreaking, and surreal, \u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a journey that spans a network of fertility apps, prenatal genetic tests, gender reveal videos, rare disease Facebook groups, \"freebirth\" influencers, and hospital reality shows. Hess confronts technology's distortions as they follow her through pregnancy and into her son's early life. The result is a critical record of our digital age that reveals the unspoken ways our lives are being fractured and reconstituted by technology.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAMANDA HESS is a critic at large for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e. She writes about internet and pop culture for the Arts section and con­tributes regularly to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Maga­zine\u003c\/i\u003e. Hess has worked as an internet columnist for \u003ci\u003eSlate \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, an editor at \u003ci\u003eGood \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, and an arts and nightlife columnist at the \u003ci\u003eWash­ington City Paper\u003c\/i\u003e, and has served as the second vice president for the NewsGuild of New York, a union representing media workers. She has also written for such publications as \u003ci\u003eESPN The Magazine, Wired, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003ePacific Standard, \u003c\/i\u003ewhere her feature on the online harassment of women won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.15 x 8.6 x 5.84 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 06, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51987505348909,"sku":"9780385549738","price":28.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/zxuqxv0seS9780385549738.webp?v=1776179130","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/second-life-having-a-child-in-the-digital-age-hardcover","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}