Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age Zibby Media Zibby Owens

Published:

May 06, 2025 ['{"currentVariantId":"48401212539196","currentType":"single_line_text_field","currentKey":"publish_date_variant","currentProps":{"badgeWidth":28,"badgeHeight":28,"showDate":true,"dateFormat":"%m-%d-%Y","showTime":true,"timeFormat":"%I:%M %p","showTimezone":true,"showUnit":true,"showMaxScale":true,"trueValText":"TRUE","falseValText":"FALSE","linkToUrl":true,"linkText":null}}',[{"description_variant":{"type":"root","children":[{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"type":"text","value":"“Hess’s debut memoir bursts with humor and intelligence as it weaves the story of her own pregnancy....This unexpected page-turner is as vulnerable as it is sharp.","bold":true},{"type":"text","value":"” —Vulture","italic":true,"bold":true}]},{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"type":"text","value":"As an internet culture critic for"},{"type":"text","value":"The New York Times","italic":true},{"type":"text","value":", 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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nAs 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.\n\nAt once funny, heartbreaking, and surreal,"},{"type":"text","value":"Second Life","italic":true},{"type":"text","value":"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."}]}]},"dimensions_variant":"8.5 X 5.7 X 1.0 inches ","ean_upc_variant":"9780385549738","language_variant":"English","publish_date_variant":"May 06, 2025","type_variant":"Hardback","_of_pages_variant":272},{"id":50697031516476,"title":"Hardcover","option1":"Hardcover","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780385549738","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age - Hardcover","public_title":"Hardcover","options":["Hardcover"],"price":2900,"weight":454,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9780385549738","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},], ]

Pages:

272

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Zibby Media / Book

Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age

Name: Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age
Brand: Amanda Hess
SKU: 9780385549738
Price: 29.0 USD
Availability: InStock

by Amanda Hess

Format

$29.00

Coming

May 06, 2025

Free gift with purchase: Order the deluxe signed limited edition hardcover and receive a letterpress print of one of the poems! While supplies last.

Description

“Hess’s debut memoir bursts with humor and intelligence as it weaves the story of her own pregnancy....This unexpected page-turner is as vulnerable as it is sharp.” —Vulture

As an internet culture critic forThe New York Times, 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.

In 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.

As 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.

At once funny, heartbreaking, and surreal,Second Lifeis 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.

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“Second Life 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 Uncanny Valley

As an internet culture critic for The New York Times, 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.

In 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.

As 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.

At once funny, heartbreaking, and surreal, Second Life 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.