This book encouraged me to quit all social media ruled by big tech companies. I couldn't decide whether to remove my Twitter until I met this book, but the decision definately improved my QOL.
[My review of the 12min summary]
[Note: Be sure to read the review of this book by ingrid@bookwyrm.social. She makes some excellent points. I probably missed those subtleties by only reading a summary.]
Good enumeration of the metastasizing cancer of social media. Most of this applies only to Big Social. Nevertheless, some of it also applies to the fediverse.
Lanier's ten arguments: 1. You are losing your free will 2. Quitting will help you resist the insanity of our times 3. You are turning into an asshole 4. Social media undermines truth 5. What you say becomes meaningless 6. You lose your capacity for empathy 7. You become unhappy 8. You lose your economic dignity 9. Social media destroys politics 10. Social media hates your soul
FINAL NOTES (quoted from 12min) Social media and the companies behind them… have capitalized on the concept of spying on and manipulating people. Social …
[My review of the 12min summary]
[Note: Be sure to read the review of this book by ingrid@bookwyrm.social. She makes some excellent points. I probably missed those subtleties by only reading a summary.]
Good enumeration of the metastasizing cancer of social media. Most of this applies only to Big Social. Nevertheless, some of it also applies to the fediverse.
Lanier's ten arguments: 1. You are losing your free will 2. Quitting will help you resist the insanity of our times 3. You are turning into an asshole 4. Social media undermines truth 5. What you say becomes meaningless 6. You lose your capacity for empathy 7. You become unhappy 8. You lose your economic dignity 9. Social media destroys politics 10. Social media hates your soul
FINAL NOTES (quoted from 12min) Social media and the companies behind them… have capitalized on the concept of spying on and manipulating people. Social media is created to be addictive, but being exposed to it too much means losing your empathy, your free will, your self-expression, and ultimately, your humanity.
To become a self-governed, creative, and independent human being again you will need to stay alert to the ways in which social media can trick you.
I read this because I was asked to write something to coincide with a re-broadcast online of a talk Lanier did about the book in 2018.
While I think Lanier does an OK job of outlining some of what's fucked about social media, this book suffers from the same delusion of Zuboff's surveillance capitalism: treating what social media does as an anomaly to capitalism, rather than a logical extension/stage of it. Lanier's pretty libertarian so it makes sense that his theory of change and his arguments for quitting social media are so "you, the reader" focused rather than collective imperatives. But much like "quitting" capitalism, quitting social media is something that requires either tremendous sacrifice or privilege to do as an individual and only really means an individual feels OK without necessarily contributing to anyone else's well-being.
In terms of readability it's not very jargon-y and relatively self-aware, but there …
I read this because I was asked to write something to coincide with a re-broadcast online of a talk Lanier did about the book in 2018.
While I think Lanier does an OK job of outlining some of what's fucked about social media, this book suffers from the same delusion of Zuboff's surveillance capitalism: treating what social media does as an anomaly to capitalism, rather than a logical extension/stage of it. Lanier's pretty libertarian so it makes sense that his theory of change and his arguments for quitting social media are so "you, the reader" focused rather than collective imperatives. But much like "quitting" capitalism, quitting social media is something that requires either tremendous sacrifice or privilege to do as an individual and only really means an individual feels OK without necessarily contributing to anyone else's well-being.
In terms of readability it's not very jargon-y and relatively self-aware, but there is definitely a low-key "I'm actually the smartest boy in the room" vibe to the entire book despite some very sweeping generalizations and mostly personal experience based arguments. I'd also second Mouse's point in their review about the weak citations (how is anyone referencing the Stanford Prison Experiment as a legitimate study?).
