The Internet of Animals: Human-Animals Relationships in the Digital Age // Deborah Lupton

2023, 160 pages, Polity

In this book, Deborah Lupton explores how digital technologies and datafication are changing our relationships with other animals. Playfully building on the concept of 'The Internet of Things', it discusses the complex relationships and feelings that have developed between people and animals online and through the use of digital devices, from the rapid dissemination of images and information about animals on social media to employing animal-like robots as companions and care devices.

It brings together a range of perspectives including sociology, cultural geography, environmental humanities, critical animal studies and internet studies to consider how these new digital technologies are contributing to major changes in human-animal relationships. As the book shows, while digital devices and media have strengthened people's relationships to other animals, these technologies can also objectify animals as things for human entertainment, therapy or economic exploitation.

For more information: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-internet-of-animals-human-animals-relationships-in-the-digital-age--9781509552740