A good example of the book that should have been an article. Worthwhile points raised in the book with needless filler. A better book: “The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads,” by Tim Wu.

Lanier writes like a computer scientist, which is what makes this book interesting. His criticisms of social media are juicy and effective, but they are constructive criticisms. He knows of what he speaks, though he speaks not eloquently. He is not utterly against social media,but argues that it could be a benevolent invention if it were constructed in a primarily humanistic way, rather than a primarily capitalist way: if it wasn't a mule of corporate advertising, and if its algorithms weren't d...

I have conflicted feelings about social media – on the one hand, it allows me stay in touch with friends; it's necessary for me in order to do my job (it's expected of me to have an Instagram account as an illustrator), on the other hand... I just don't really like it. This book is pretty straight-forward. I picked it up after watching Netflix's recent documentary The Social Dilemma, in which the author of this one is being interviewed. The book covers very similar topics to the film and essent...

Another of those misleading, but cool-sounding, titles that the author spends an entire book running circles around.

★★★★★ (5/5)I see some top GR reviews for this book slating the content and in particular, the writing style. I begin to wonder if a book with such a diverse scope deserves to be judged according to what I would call “literary” parameters. Of course to each his own, but for me, this was dense, thought-provoking and a fundamental read - so much so that the very idea of judging the writing style did not cross my mind (and I am quick to judge in this regard).Lanier’s ideas are rooted, not unhinged f...

Please read this book! Even if you don't want to delete your social media accounts this book will make you so much more mindful about what is happening to your brain, to politics, to truth, and to communication when you use social media. I quit twitter the day before I started this and it has affirmed that decision INTENSELY. I will never go back to that awful place!The author is so positive: he isn't anti-tech, he's just pro-GOOD tech. He is funny and silly but serious and well measured. He gav...

This is an interesting manifesto about how social media is destroying our souls and our society, but unfortunately, this book isn't well-written. It's skimmable, at best.Here's a quick guide to Lanier's arguments:1. You are losing your free will.2. Quitting social media is the most finely targeted way to resist the insanity of our times.3. Social media is making you into an asshole.4. Social media is undermining truth.5. Social media is making what you say meaningless.6. Social media is destroyi...

On Genies and BottlesIn 1956, the novelist and scientist, C. P. Snow wrote an article entitled The Two Cultures. The cultures he had in mind were science and the humanities. Each, he claimed, had its own specialised vocabulary, its own criteria for acceptable thought, and its own unspoken beliefs about ‘the way the world really is’. Communication between members of the two cultures were, he concluded, in such a parlous state that the fate of human society was threatened. Essentially he believed

Actually I thought I knew what Lanier was going to say in this book and wasn’t going to read it. Then I listened to a podcast with him with Ezra Klein, and beginning about the 60-minute mark, Lanier speaks of how we should be ‘lone wolves’ instead of ‘pack wolves’ in our social lives and I stopped cold. Wait. I kind of understand he is saying “think for yourselves,” but aren’t we supposed to be working together to achieve something bigger than any one of us could do alone? I thought he might exp...

Facebook, Google and The RaptureJaron Lanier wants to be known for his music and his appreciation of cats (He likes to say he is one). But where he is best known, and most useful, is in his appreciation of the internet. In You Are Not A Gadget (2010), he created a manifesto to free us from the clutches of the corporations installing their systems in our daily lives. Now, things are much worse. Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now is a more specific and desperate appeal...

For such a short work, Jaron Lanier's Ten Arguments conjured quite a lot of feelings in me, and most of them smacked of frustration, embarrassment, and exasperation. It's not that I find myself disagreeing with his core ten-point encapsulation of reasons to remove one's self from the influence of social media, which is satisfyingly listed on the back of the book (and which caused me to purchase it in the first place). These feelings are instead much more the product of having so many problems wi...

Since this is my final post here because I'll be deleting Goodreads (and Facebook) after this, I... Okay, just kidding. I actually did delete Snapchat, which is apparently a bit innocuous compared to the other platforms Jaron Lanier (a trustworthy man with some authority here) refers to, but more due to the fact that I have basically 9 active friends there, and all of them use other apps. I think if I were more casually and even leisurely committed to social media, I might be fully persuaded to

I’m somewhat biased in my dislike of Social Media so this book reinforces a lot of my own personal beliefs when it comes to sharing opinions on this internet. Let me start by saying that I don’t see Goodreads as a social media website because I have no inclinations to engage with other people in such a way as I might on Twitter or Facebook.The writer seemed quite knowledgeable about the subject he was writing about and his arguments were well supported by citations, although I would have a heck

If I hadn't already deleted my Facebook account a few years back, I would most likely delete it immediately after reading this book. Right now I'm down to Twitter and Goodreads (if you can count Goodreads for social media - not sure if I do) and Instagram. I can also do without Instagram, and I don't know if I'll ever post there again now, but Twitter? I'll admit: I'm completely addicted. Which is why this book was important for me to read. While I haven't (yet) deleted my Twitter account, I now...

Fine, fine. But I’m keeping Goodreads!