Andrew Sullivan Society Is Dead Summary

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Andrew Sullivan's article "Society Is Dead: We Have Retreated into the iworld", published on 20th of February 2005, is an intriguingly thought-provoking article that points out how severely society is absorbed in the technological world. The author discusses his opinion about the intense impact of technology on isolating people. In Andrew’s opinion, people have become so reliant on technology that they walk around in their own musical bubbles and shun out the real world around them. The idea of his article clarifies how the excessive use of technological devices is limiting human interaction. I tend to find his article very effective in terms of use of logical appeals and evident real life examples, unbiased perspective, tone and attitude, …show more content…

He reports an incident where he notices a peculiar change of the New York City life, in which it had become “quieter”, by every individual’s isolation due to iPod earphones. He uses evident examples of everyday life to emphasize the isolation of people from each other by the impact of technology and media. He comments, “They walk down the street in their own MP3 cocoon, bumping into others, deaf to small social cues, shutting out anyone not in their bubble” (Sullivan, 2005). He also uses corresponding analogies to clarify the severity of the problem he is addressing, in which he says, “Every now and again I go to church ─ those huge, luminous Apple stores, pews in the rear, the clerics in their monastic uniforms all bustling around or sitting behind the "Genius Bars," like priests waiting to hear confessions” (Sullivan, 2005). Similarly, he compares people iPod owners to an “addictive cult” that spreads …show more content…

His piece is written from a first-person narrative point of view, and he regularly uses the word "I." For instance, at the beginning of the article, he says, "I was visiting New York last week and noticed something I'd never thought I'd say about the city" (Sullivan, 2005). Later he states, "Not so long ago I was on a trip and realized I had left my iPod behind” (Sullivan, 2005). Also, Sullivan uses conjunctions at the beginning of several sentences: "But there was something else . . . ," and “And as I looked through the pavements…” (Sullivan, 2005) There are also fragment sentences, such as: "Don't ask, don't tell, don't overhear, don't observe." (Sullivan, 2005). Overall, the author’s article is not very well organized, which make his ideas straight to the

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