Don't let yourself ruled by social media
5 stars
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.
paperback, 176 pages
Published Aug. 27, 2019 by Picador.
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.
This was such a frustrating read because I agree with so many of the problems he identifies with social media, but I found his reasoning deeply flawed.
To the extent that this is a diatribe about how unpleasant social media is in his personal experience, I was mostly onboard, but the difference, I think, between a rant and a book is rigor.
His citations were mostly news articles and wikipedia entries, and he relies heavily on a superficial understanding of popular, flawed studies like the Stanford Prison Experiment. He makes bold, sweeping, and imprecise statements about the a number of things, particularly the nature of addiction and how addicts behave, without any backup or indication that he is speaking in any way besides entirely off the cuff.
I was disappointed as well in how stuck his reasoning is within the frame of capitalism and tech solutionism.