[SIGCIS-Members] Book Announcement: Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, and the Politics of Pushing

[Plotnick, Rachel]

Hi SIGCISers,


I am pleased to announce the publication of my book, Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, and the Politics of Pushing? with The MIT Press in the Science, Technology & Society series.


The book historicizes computing by thinking about definitions of "digital" as they apply to fingers and button pushing, tracing the roots of a 19th-century society that becomes transfixed with the notion of pushing a button to accomplish work or play. Alongside thinking about electrification and industrialization, it considers everything from push-button warfare, vending machines and cameras to "Like" buttons in social media. It asks questions about how and why buttons became a ubiquitous technology and button pushing became an entrenched practice - one fraught with concerns about skill, effort, gender, age and class.


Check out an excerpt here: https://medium.com/@mitpress/pleasure-panic-and-the-politics-of-pushing-123b534eaee7

And purchase options here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/power-button


Thanks and regards,

Rachel


Rachel Plotnick, PhD
Assistant Professor, Cinema and Media Studies
The Media School
Indiana University
http://www.rachelplotnick.com?
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