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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
4★
"This book argues in ten ways that what has become suddenly normal - persuasive surveillance and constant, subtle manipulation - is unethical, cruel, dangerous, and inhumane. Dangerous? Oh, yes, because who knows who's going to use that power, and for what?"
Buckle up because, oh boy, this is going to be a big one.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now comes kicking in for me, almost 6 years later than its publish date, this book not only gave me more reason to what I was already feeling I should do - stepping aside and leaving the social media world aside - but gave me understanding and facts about why I was feeling the need for that.
Jaron Lanier hits the bullseye with this one, making me even more curious to check his other books, giving us an in-depth review of the "BUMMER" algorithms. How incredible is its need to amplify negative emotions as the author puts it, but also amplifies the idiotic people with the most nonsense opinions, because that's how the algorithm wins our attention. Next, I'll leave some quotes on that topic, but I highly encourage you to read the full book to understand better the context of each of those.
"Comment authors were mostly seeking attention for themselves. We were all in the same stew, manipulating each other, inflating ourselves"
"But I've observed that since social media took off, assholes are having more of a say in the world".
"With nothing else to seek but attention, ordinary people tend to become assholes, because the biggest assholes get the most attention".
"One must be followed more than one follows, for appearances' sake"
This last one reminds me of one of the internet outbreaks when Instagram had just started, where we all were ashamed to follow more than we were followed, leading to even more invasion of privacy as we connected out accounts to third-party providers that made lots of bots follow us in exchange of our data. Similar to that, in the same outbreak but less invasive, we also had people doing the hashtag #follow4follow, which led us to spend hours trading follows and likes with other random people so we could all feel better inside, and for what?
-
"Some have compared social media to the tobacco industry, but I will not. The better analogy is paint that contains lead. When it became undeniable that lead was harmful, no one declared that houses should never be painted again. Instead, after pressure and legislation, lead-free paints became the new standard. Smart people simply waited to buy paint until there was a safe version on sale. Similarly, smart people should delete their accounts until nontoxic varieties are available".
"Public health measures and modern medicine have doubled our life spans. Doubled! The unintended result is that now some of us can believe nonsense and not pay for that belief with our lives. At least for a while."
Two of my favorite quotes from this book, let us once again put glasses to understand how certain (very stupid) extreme-right and fascist movements arose, not to even start on the anti-vax, ones that walk side by side together. Social media has made space for assholes since we give them attention, what started as "memes" in Brazil, has led to one of the darkest and most disturbing periods in our history with the election of a clown marionette who arose because of the BUMMER algorithm - making damages still to this day, not only in the sewage they live on the internet but also on weak-minded people who still are having side-effects of that madness. Another great book I've read this year, Cultish, taught me a lot that "language doesn’t work to manipulate people into believing things they don’t want to believe;" and social media gave a lot of space to those people, again, diseases that society had eradicated, are now coming back thanks to the combination of BUMMER algorithm and people stupidity.
on that note, here's another quote from the book:
"The next stage in BUMMER politics is the one in which assholes realize they're favored by BUMMER. All kinds of assholes appear. They get enough attention to outspace the well-meaning people..."
-
"Don't blame the site. There are so few independent news sites, and they're precious. They've been backed into a corner by BUMMER and they're incredibly vulnerable[...] when writers become less motivated by the desire to reach people directly, but instead must appeal to a not necessary reliable number-dispensing system, then writers are losing their connection to their context. The more successful a writer is in this system, the less she knows what she's writing"
This one reminded me of a horrible case that happened not even 6 months ago here in Brazil, where a "news" website/social media account thought they were Gods (and were earning like so, having won 20 thousand Reais every day just posting gossips and being paid from influencers to spotlight them) spread out fake news about a girl, which led her to suicide. Who pays for those?
-
"The most common form of online myopia is that most people can only make time to see what's placed in front of them by the algorithmic feeds."
"Not only is your worldview distorted, but you have less awareness of other people's worldviews. You are banished from the experiences of the other groups being manipulated separately."
We work all day to pay our bills and have little "right to laziness" after hours, where most of us don't get to learn, read, or watch something.. but have to take care of non-visible and non-paid work with educating our children and taking care of the household. Our society - a capitalist one - doesn't let us even have the "right to be lazy" (a very good book reco!), we need to be productive at all times, and when we finally have time to scroll to social media, we're not even choosing what we want to consume, most of the times being trapped inside our own little bubble, oftentimes being presented to a fascist, xenophobic, homophobic and/or racist post - maybe to make us mad and go fight in the comments, where we lose even more our empathy and patience, but also where the algorithm wins us by making us mad.
-
Following that note, then came the Black Lives Matter movement, where the internet seemed for one of the first times, to be a safe and harmful space, where it was nice to be in and see how much people came together for a noble cause.
"Black activists and sympathizers were carefully cataloged and studied. What wording got them excited? What annoyed them? What little things, stories, videos, anything, kept them glued to BUMMER? [...] The purpose was not to repress the movement but to earn money."
Later on, the author lets us know that the algorithm wasn't being nice to us all, and especially to the black community, but learning from them... learning what they liked, and disliked, so then the algorithm could put them even more on the edge of society, inside their little bubbles.. not being spread out ever again, only living inside their circles and segregating them even more from the rest of society.
-
This review is already huge, but I'll finish with this next quote:
"Should machines be given 'equal rights, as is so often proposed in tech culture? Indeed, Saudi Arabia has granted citizenship to a 'female' robot, and with that citizenship, rights not available to Saudi human women".
Funny (sad) how we women don't get recognition even when we're the bearers of society, living with lower wages than men who do the same or less job than us, having our rights questioned and decided by white men, having to work after hours in our unpaid job called household and maternity chores... I don't even have the stomach to comment on the quote above.
Let us be aware of what's being presented to us, what we're consuming, what we're agreeing to... cause this path we're leading is not looking good. I successfully quit my social media and you should too, the world is bigger than the tiny screens we so get hung upon and lose hours and hours consuming stupid stuff - and even inhumane ones. Revolution is made by people and for people, by workers, and for workers, we can build a better society than this, no way we need to settle for so little while we're giving those big tech companies our most private data in exchange for nothing.
Be like a cat.
Thank you.
"This book argues in ten ways that what has become suddenly normal - persuasive surveillance and constant, subtle manipulation - is unethical, cruel, dangerous, and inhumane. Dangerous? Oh, yes, because who knows who's going to use that power, and for what?"
Buckle up because, oh boy, this is going to be a big one.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now comes kicking in for me, almost 6 years later than its publish date, this book not only gave me more reason to what I was already feeling I should do - stepping aside and leaving the social media world aside - but gave me understanding and facts about why I was feeling the need for that.
Jaron Lanier hits the bullseye with this one, making me even more curious to check his other books, giving us an in-depth review of the "BUMMER" algorithms. How incredible is its need to amplify negative emotions as the author puts it, but also amplifies the idiotic people with the most nonsense opinions, because that's how the algorithm wins our attention. Next, I'll leave some quotes on that topic, but I highly encourage you to read the full book to understand better the context of each of those.
"Comment authors were mostly seeking attention for themselves. We were all in the same stew, manipulating each other, inflating ourselves"
"But I've observed that since social media took off, assholes are having more of a say in the world".
"With nothing else to seek but attention, ordinary people tend to become assholes, because the biggest assholes get the most attention".
"One must be followed more than one follows, for appearances' sake"
This last one reminds me of one of the internet outbreaks when Instagram had just started, where we all were ashamed to follow more than we were followed, leading to even more invasion of privacy as we connected out accounts to third-party providers that made lots of bots follow us in exchange of our data. Similar to that, in the same outbreak but less invasive, we also had people doing the hashtag #follow4follow, which led us to spend hours trading follows and likes with other random people so we could all feel better inside, and for what?
-
"Some have compared social media to the tobacco industry, but I will not. The better analogy is paint that contains lead. When it became undeniable that lead was harmful, no one declared that houses should never be painted again. Instead, after pressure and legislation, lead-free paints became the new standard. Smart people simply waited to buy paint until there was a safe version on sale. Similarly, smart people should delete their accounts until nontoxic varieties are available".
"Public health measures and modern medicine have doubled our life spans. Doubled! The unintended result is that now some of us can believe nonsense and not pay for that belief with our lives. At least for a while."
Two of my favorite quotes from this book, let us once again put glasses to understand how certain (very stupid) extreme-right and fascist movements arose, not to even start on the anti-vax, ones that walk side by side together. Social media has made space for assholes since we give them attention, what started as "memes" in Brazil, has led to one of the darkest and most disturbing periods in our history with the election of a clown marionette who arose because of the BUMMER algorithm - making damages still to this day, not only in the sewage they live on the internet but also on weak-minded people who still are having side-effects of that madness. Another great book I've read this year, Cultish, taught me a lot that "language doesn’t work to manipulate people into believing things they don’t want to believe;" and social media gave a lot of space to those people, again, diseases that society had eradicated, are now coming back thanks to the combination of BUMMER algorithm and people stupidity.
on that note, here's another quote from the book:
"The next stage in BUMMER politics is the one in which assholes realize they're favored by BUMMER. All kinds of assholes appear. They get enough attention to outspace the well-meaning people..."
-
"Don't blame the site. There are so few independent news sites, and they're precious. They've been backed into a corner by BUMMER and they're incredibly vulnerable[...] when writers become less motivated by the desire to reach people directly, but instead must appeal to a not necessary reliable number-dispensing system, then writers are losing their connection to their context. The more successful a writer is in this system, the less she knows what she's writing"
This one reminded me of a horrible case that happened not even 6 months ago here in Brazil, where a "news" website/social media account thought they were Gods (and were earning like so, having won 20 thousand Reais every day just posting gossips and being paid from influencers to spotlight them) spread out fake news about a girl, which led her to suicide. Who pays for those?
-
"The most common form of online myopia is that most people can only make time to see what's placed in front of them by the algorithmic feeds."
"Not only is your worldview distorted, but you have less awareness of other people's worldviews. You are banished from the experiences of the other groups being manipulated separately."
We work all day to pay our bills and have little "right to laziness" after hours, where most of us don't get to learn, read, or watch something.. but have to take care of non-visible and non-paid work with educating our children and taking care of the household. Our society - a capitalist one - doesn't let us even have the "right to be lazy" (a very good book reco!), we need to be productive at all times, and when we finally have time to scroll to social media, we're not even choosing what we want to consume, most of the times being trapped inside our own little bubble, oftentimes being presented to a fascist, xenophobic, homophobic and/or racist post - maybe to make us mad and go fight in the comments, where we lose even more our empathy and patience, but also where the algorithm wins us by making us mad.
-
Following that note, then came the Black Lives Matter movement, where the internet seemed for one of the first times, to be a safe and harmful space, where it was nice to be in and see how much people came together for a noble cause.
"Black activists and sympathizers were carefully cataloged and studied. What wording got them excited? What annoyed them? What little things, stories, videos, anything, kept them glued to BUMMER? [...] The purpose was not to repress the movement but to earn money."
Later on, the author lets us know that the algorithm wasn't being nice to us all, and especially to the black community, but learning from them... learning what they liked, and disliked, so then the algorithm could put them even more on the edge of society, inside their little bubbles.. not being spread out ever again, only living inside their circles and segregating them even more from the rest of society.
-
This review is already huge, but I'll finish with this next quote:
"Should machines be given 'equal rights, as is so often proposed in tech culture? Indeed, Saudi Arabia has granted citizenship to a 'female' robot, and with that citizenship, rights not available to Saudi human women".
Funny (sad) how we women don't get recognition even when we're the bearers of society, living with lower wages than men who do the same or less job than us, having our rights questioned and decided by white men, having to work after hours in our unpaid job called household and maternity chores... I don't even have the stomach to comment on the quote above.
Let us be aware of what's being presented to us, what we're consuming, what we're agreeing to... cause this path we're leading is not looking good. I successfully quit my social media and you should too, the world is bigger than the tiny screens we so get hung upon and lose hours and hours consuming stupid stuff - and even inhumane ones. Revolution is made by people and for people, by workers, and for workers, we can build a better society than this, no way we need to settle for so little while we're giving those big tech companies our most private data in exchange for nothing.
Be like a cat.
Thank you.
This is a funny kind of book. On many of its prescriptions and lines of argument, it is deeper than it seems, and Lanier rarely gives his ideas room to flourish and grow beyond the mildly dogmatic. And, while many of these points are gaining popular traction, the length of time that Lanier has thought about these issues give his delivery an "of course" style that, while perhaps breezy, does allow him to get to the heart of the matter quickly, which is good.
And then there are the observations themselves, which are on the whole good and true. Some of the assertions are much stronger than others, but his arguments about social media destroying empathy, making people assholes, rendering words and thoughtful conversations irrelevant, making people unhappy, and destroying the possibilities of economic dignity and meaningful politics are on target and everywhere visible in their symptoms. For example, try this:
There's an undigested sore spot, which is Lanier's unquestioning belief in capitalism's goodness, which I think leads him into some failed binaries (lone wolf / collective good being one of these). However, if you're able to move past that troubling lacunae, there is much here that is necessary and deeply important to being able to survive contemporary social life without giving in to the destructive powers of technological mediation.
And then there are the observations themselves, which are on the whole good and true. Some of the assertions are much stronger than others, but his arguments about social media destroying empathy, making people assholes, rendering words and thoughtful conversations irrelevant, making people unhappy, and destroying the possibilities of economic dignity and meaningful politics are on target and everywhere visible in their symptoms. For example, try this:
What social media did at that time [the Arab Spring], and what is always does, is create illusions: that you can improve society by wishes alone; that the sanest people will be favoured in cutting contests; and that somehow material well-being will just take care of itself. What actually happens, always, is that the illusions fall apart when it is too late, and the world is inherited by the crudest, most selfish, and least informed people. Anyone who isn't an asshole gets hurt the most.While these resemble platitudes, they're informed by the social context in which Lanier moves and represent important admissions of guilt and disillusionment that should give programmers, designers, communicators, and so-called influencers pause, to say the least about the rest of us who so often blindly accept the Faustian bargain of the hyper-mediated commercially-monopsonist world.
There's an undigested sore spot, which is Lanier's unquestioning belief in capitalism's goodness, which I think leads him into some failed binaries (lone wolf / collective good being one of these). However, if you're able to move past that troubling lacunae, there is much here that is necessary and deeply important to being able to survive contemporary social life without giving in to the destructive powers of technological mediation.
Insightful, thought-provoking and eye opening.
This book gives me hope in humanity. It has changed the way I use my social media accounts already. Who knows, I may even delete them. I want everyone to read this.
This book gives me hope in humanity. It has changed the way I use my social media accounts already. Who knows, I may even delete them. I want everyone to read this.
3.5 rounded up.
I had heard of this book years ago but only recently, when I realized how bad my doomscrolling was getting, did I start to consider actually deleting my social media accounts. I go back and forth between periods of feeling either chronically online or more in control, but I've spent time this year intentionally learning about how the social media platforms I've joined are using my data, and also about how the greed of those running these platforms is affecting the planet, politics, etc. All of this has me frequently considering going off the grid for good. And that includes goodreads. I haven't decided anything yet, so for now here's what I think about the book:
It's relatively short - I ran out of listening hours and had to wait until they regenerated to finish - but it could easily be read in less than a week. Lanier's 10 arguments are sound, but I feel like this could've been edited down a bit. Overall it felt a little dry, and not as empowering or motivating as I was hoping for. At times it felt ranty, but I think for anyone curious about deleting their digital lives, this is a good start.
He makes it very clear that he is a liberal, and vehemently anit-Trump (a plus for me) and since this book was written in 2018, I couldn't help but wonder if he's working on another book addressing technology, social media, AI and Trump's 2nd term. I'm not sure if I'd want to read it, because I'm depressed enough, but he is very knowledgable and I value his opinions/suggestions.
I had heard of this book years ago but only recently, when I realized how bad my doomscrolling was getting, did I start to consider actually deleting my social media accounts. I go back and forth between periods of feeling either chronically online or more in control, but I've spent time this year intentionally learning about how the social media platforms I've joined are using my data, and also about how the greed of those running these platforms is affecting the planet, politics, etc. All of this has me frequently considering going off the grid for good. And that includes goodreads. I haven't decided anything yet, so for now here's what I think about the book:
It's relatively short - I ran out of listening hours and had to wait until they regenerated to finish - but it could easily be read in less than a week. Lanier's 10 arguments are sound, but I feel like this could've been edited down a bit. Overall it felt a little dry, and not as empowering or motivating as I was hoping for. At times it felt ranty, but I think for anyone curious about deleting their digital lives, this is a good start.
He makes it very clear that he is a liberal, and vehemently anit-Trump (a plus for me) and since this book was written in 2018, I couldn't help but wonder if he's working on another book addressing technology, social media, AI and Trump's 2nd term. I'm not sure if I'd want to read it, because I'm depressed enough, but he is very knowledgable and I value his opinions/suggestions.
This was written 6 years ago, you can now see things that he predicted might happen ...happening.
And quite interesting!
And quite interesting!
I picked up this book after watching an interview with Lanier that mostly convinced me to follow his recommendation of quitting social media for a six-month trial period. While I appreciated Lanier’s ideas and perspective, he communicated them more effectively via interview than book. Ten Arguments… was brief and interesting enough that I got through it, but I found the structure and organization lacking. He threw out a number of ideas that he failed to support or explain, many of which would likely fall apart under closer examination. Lanier did accomplish his goal of persuading me, but that may not have been the case if I’d missed his interview and only read Ten Arguments.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I recently deleted social media apps for a short while. It was such a nice experience that I want the motivation to make it a permanent change.
This was a short audiobook that put some important reminders together in a succinct way to help me achieve that goal.
This was a short audiobook that put some important reminders together in a succinct way to help me achieve that goal.
"How about 'Behaviors of Users Modified, and Made into an Empire for Rent'? BUMMER."
"The whole purpose of BUMMER is turning you and changes to your behavior into a product. The algorithms fundamentally work to favor platform owners and advertisers, and those parties need abstractions of you in order to manipulate you."
"The business plan of BUMMER is to sneakily take data from you and make money off it. Look at how rich BUMMER companies are and remember that their wealth is made entirely of the data you gave them."
"BUMMER was originally sold as a barter deal. 'Let us spy on you and in return you'll get free services.' This might seem like a reasonable deal in the short term, but in the long term it's terrible."
Jaron Lanier
"The whole purpose of BUMMER is turning you and changes to your behavior into a product. The algorithms fundamentally work to favor platform owners and advertisers, and those parties need abstractions of you in order to manipulate you."
"The business plan of BUMMER is to sneakily take data from you and make money off it. Look at how rich BUMMER companies are and remember that their wealth is made entirely of the data you gave them."
"BUMMER was originally sold as a barter deal. 'Let us spy on you and in return you'll get free services.' This might seem like a reasonable deal in the short term, but in the long term it's terrible."
Jaron Lanier
Olipas vauhdikas rantti! Kirjoittaja kuvaa somealgoritmien ja mainoksilla pyörivän kapitalismin ongelmia. Kuuntelin kirjan sen jälkeen, kun olin poistanut Twitterin puhelimestani. Tämän teoksen jälkeen se tuskin tulee enää takaisin sovellusvalikoimaan. Toki teos laittoi tarkastelemaan muutoinkin omaa suhdettaan sosiaaliseen mediaan. Olisin kaivannut hieman enemmän pohdintaa ja spekulaatiota vaihtoehtoisista markkinarakenteista ja aiheeseen liittyvästä lainsäädännöstä eri puolilla maailmaa.