Phillips makes a dedicated case for renewing connection between technology and human emotions ... Challenging readers to think about what it means to be empathetic in a technology-driven era, this will resonate with those trying to balance a reliance on 'always on' technology with humanity and the capacity for empathy.
... persuasive ... Phillips provides a helpful discussion of empathy-building training for corporate employees and medical professionals. The author isn’t just a journalist with an intense interest in this modern conundrum; she’s also 'a millennial in my early thirties,' so her concerns about the importance of infusing caring and compassion into tech-saturated contemporary life are particularly relevant. However, while the author’s concentration holds steady on methods to enable technology to rescue modern-day empathy, a significant question lingers throughout: Can the tech world and its gadgets and gurus reverse the hard-hearted trend it actually induced? Phillips is optimistic as she covers a host of AI–based friendship and psychotherapy alternatives, but a finer focus and tighter narrative arc would have sharpened her message of encouraging and embracing the power of empathic technology ... An unevenly presented but beneficial report sure to spark discussion about integrating kindness into modern technology.
... a survey whose ever-shifting scope results in a collection of interesting parts that never coalesce into a satisfying whole ... starts promisingly, with a discussion of empathy’s perceived decline, and solutions for addressing this ... As the book progresses, the focus blurs, as a discussion of virtual reality’s empathy-building potential shifts into an entire chapter on the technology’s use in news reporting. Phillips’s tone is optimistic about the devices and programs she covers, but the notion that more technology is actually the best solution for tech-induced empathy gaps is questionable. Readers who reach the end of this fitfully stimulating book may instead feel that, as one interview subject notes, 'the best thing you can do is talk to people.'
