Book excerpt: The rapid growth of our digital world has brought huge advantages - access to information anywhere, at any time, and the ability to communicate with colleagues, family and friends around the globe in real-time. But in other ways, the same technology has also disconnected us. Computers risk becoming less of a productivity tool and more like information firehoses, drowning us in a deluge of data that can keep us from doing meaningful, real work. The devices in our hands connect us like never before, but they vie for our attention to the point where they are beginning to disconnect us from the real world. In this book, Dave Coplin argues that right now it feels like the machines are taking over but if we stop thinking about the digital deluge as a problem and instead see it as an incredible opportunity we will be able to redress the balance. Technology offers our society so much but it is up to us, the humans, to rise to that potential.