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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Telling the story of the rise of Facebook - from a college website designed to rank the hotness of women to social network connecting billions of people - this book is an inside look into the growth of this company. It is very well written and told in a fascinating style that made you want to keep reading. The theme throughout, though, is how irresponsible Zuckerberg and the company are around speech. Rather than crafting thoughtful policies, much of the operation seems to be ask forgiveness, promise to do better, and then never actually do anything. I wish the hook had ended a bit more hopefully, but I do appreciate that it was realistic, if depressing.
Creation myths need a devil. - Elliot Schrage / The Social Network.
An Ugly Truth by Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel is the perfect exposure to the famous social networking site. It's pretty remarkable how this spoiled college kid changed the world. Whether for better or for worse, Facebook is more significant than any of them would have dreamed. But it's much worse now. People have no concept of the boundary between private & public. People no longer know how to socialise correctly; their anonymous internet attitude spills into face to face interaction.
Facebook's layout has gone through several significant changes, each one triggering a mass epidemic of complaining. Ironically, each new update has people rushing to defend the old design, deciding it was not so bad after all despite laying into that one prior. In addition to this, the media & some more tech-savvy public members have found a place to whip Facebook where it hurts the most: privacy. Over time, Facebook has implemented different levels of confidentiality for its user profiles (while urging people to use caution before posting any compromising photos or rants).
While Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires focuses on the site's evolution, this book centres on the mid-2010s of political scandals, the controversy of what's acceptable for free speech & the indefiniteness of privacy. Facebook's ability to collect information is undeniably bizarre. It's unfortunate to see them mishandle information like this & be so complacent at taking action. In the end, I suppose it's wise to assume you have no control over who collects your data & reduce the size of your cyber footprint itself.
The human brain cannot sustain more than 150 meaningful human connections; limiting the amount of 'friends' people have will make us more selective of who & what we allow in our feed. It also makes false info spread slower, & we tend to have more meaningful interactions with people that matter...instead of a bunch of fear-mongering trolls...just a suggestion based on scientific fact. If Aaron Sorkin & David Fincher ever made a sequel to The Social Network, it should be based on this book.
Nothing but a laundry list of past criticisms from NY Times organized chronologically. The book doesn’t add any new arguments or insights to current conversation, nor does it dive deeper to understand and discuss the tech powering content moderation. The bottom line is just Facebook is evil because its core algorithm is evil.
Audiobook. Very detailed and well-written. Easy to listen to. While this book has many more details that I had previously, I don’t feel like I learned much that I hadn’t already heard summarized on podcasts such as Behind the Bastards.
Reading this book at the same time as a Hank Green Sci-fi novel about tech companies controlling everything we do up to the point of our own consciousness may or may not have had an effect on me as I read this book…
I thought it was well researched and written, but the jumping around in the timeline was really confusing for me and I would have preferred all the background info in chronological order instead of by chapter focus.
I thought it was well researched and written, but the jumping around in the timeline was really confusing for me and I would have preferred all the background info in chronological order instead of by chapter focus.
informative
tense
fast-paced
Listened as audiobook - really compelling story by two reporters at the New York Times, written in a way that’s accessible to a big audience and not totally jargon filled. It’s a look at how Facebook started turning a profit by bringing in Sheryl Sandburg to create personalized ads, and she was a bit of a counter to Mark Zuckerberg’s laser focus on growth, growth, growth. The book shows how the company becoming so big so fast, treating disinformation in Myanmar the same as it would a middle school cyber bully, really was a strategy that was naive and majorly backfired to be easily weaponized.
As someone who follows Silicon Valley drama more than the average person, there was a lot of stuff I learned in here — especially about Zuckerberg personally. The book portrays him as lacking the same level of intelligence other big tech innovators have, regardless of what people think of them personally - i.e. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos. During the Trump years as disinformation was spreading on Facebook, Zuckerberg really seemed to surround himself by libertarian-esque thinkers who encouraged him to double down on not not really tackling the disinformation problems. To be fair, it also seemed like the problem grew so big Facebook should have really addressed the problem before — but the company was so focused on growing it ignored all of the problems that could arise as it pushed forth with its mission to “connect the world.”
But Zuckerberg just seems to do a lot of dumb stuff like in the midst of the disinformation problem, he pushes groups on Facebook so people can just take their conversations to a private space but of course that then is a recipe for empowering extremists.
Sheryl Sandberg who was apparently a thing in the early 2010s for her “Lean In” book appears to lean away from being a big voice willing to challenge Zuckerberg or any of its problems. So that makes one wonder, does she have any power at Facebook? Is she complicit? What is she doing there?
There is a part in the book, weeks after Sandberg had a chilly meeting with Nancy Pelosi where she assures the house speaker Facebook had new tools set up to combat disinformation, when a slowed down video goes viral that slows down a Pelosi speech and makes her appear drunk. The other major social media platforms agreed to take it down, but Facebook decided to keep it up — you know because “speech.” Pelosi’s reaction was that at first after the Cambridge Analytica scandals and Russian disinformation scandals, people might feel bad for Facebook that it’s company was weaponized, but she said in a moment like that, Facebook actually seems happy and content to be weaponized by extremists. Well, the book certainly points in that direction.
Now Zuckerberg has new Metaverse projects and is hyper focused on preventing the government from breaking up his giant tech company. It seems like he’s intentionally working to make it impossible for Facebook to be broken up. And of course now Meta seems like another tech thing that’s easy for people to weaponize and it’s forthcoming scandals will likely not be surprising.
Anyway. Apparently there’s going to be a miniseries about this book so I look forward to watching.
As someone who follows Silicon Valley drama more than the average person, there was a lot of stuff I learned in here — especially about Zuckerberg personally. The book portrays him as lacking the same level of intelligence other big tech innovators have, regardless of what people think of them personally - i.e. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos. During the Trump years as disinformation was spreading on Facebook, Zuckerberg really seemed to surround himself by libertarian-esque thinkers who encouraged him to double down on not not really tackling the disinformation problems. To be fair, it also seemed like the problem grew so big Facebook should have really addressed the problem before — but the company was so focused on growing it ignored all of the problems that could arise as it pushed forth with its mission to “connect the world.”
But Zuckerberg just seems to do a lot of dumb stuff like in the midst of the disinformation problem, he pushes groups on Facebook so people can just take their conversations to a private space but of course that then is a recipe for empowering extremists.
Sheryl Sandberg who was apparently a thing in the early 2010s for her “Lean In” book appears to lean away from being a big voice willing to challenge Zuckerberg or any of its problems. So that makes one wonder, does she have any power at Facebook? Is she complicit? What is she doing there?
There is a part in the book, weeks after Sandberg had a chilly meeting with Nancy Pelosi where she assures the house speaker Facebook had new tools set up to combat disinformation, when a slowed down video goes viral that slows down a Pelosi speech and makes her appear drunk. The other major social media platforms agreed to take it down, but Facebook decided to keep it up — you know because “speech.” Pelosi’s reaction was that at first after the Cambridge Analytica scandals and Russian disinformation scandals, people might feel bad for Facebook that it’s company was weaponized, but she said in a moment like that, Facebook actually seems happy and content to be weaponized by extremists. Well, the book certainly points in that direction.
Now Zuckerberg has new Metaverse projects and is hyper focused on preventing the government from breaking up his giant tech company. It seems like he’s intentionally working to make it impossible for Facebook to be broken up. And of course now Meta seems like another tech thing that’s easy for people to weaponize and it’s forthcoming scandals will likely not be surprising.
Anyway. Apparently there’s going to be a miniseries about this book so I look forward to watching.
informative
medium-paced
The story uses Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as the main proponents/foils for Facebook's dual nature of advancing society via connecting people while also profiting off of them. Based on hundreds of interviews, Kang and Frenkel paint a vivid picture of the inner workings of the company and the thoughts of employees and management as events unfolded. While there aren't any major new details for people who have been following the reporting on Facebook from 2016-2021, the book does a good job filling in the voices of people who were trying to do the right thing within the company. There are probably better books discussing the negative impacts of social media in general, but this one is great for Facebook in particular.
Facebook is constantly in the news, and they’ve made the topics of privacy, data, misinformation, and ethics a global conversation. Prior to this book, I hadn’t heard of Sheera Frenkel or Cecilia Kang’s writing, but I’m now officially a fan. They’ve been working on this book for years while also reporting on all of the news surrounding Facebook, and they managed to put together an incredible story while working from opposite sides of the country during the pandemic. I usually find books like these dull to read, but these two are incredible writers, and they were able to hold my attention throughout the book. They discuss the beginnings of Facebook and the origin of Sheryl Sandberg joining the company and dive into all of the major stories since Facebook’s inception.
What separates this book from others on this topic is the insane amount of research these two put into this book. They conducted hundreds of interviews with current and former Facebook employees to paint a comprehensive picture of what was going on behind the scenes and some of the ethical issues Zuckerberg and Sandberg face. While both Kang and Frenkel express their personal opinions on Twitter, they did an excellent job simply presenting the story with this book so you can form your own opinions about Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and the company as a whole. Due to the extensive amount of interviews, you get to hear what many of the employees were thinking, discussing, and debating during each of the stories, and that was probably my favorite aspect of the book. As an optimist, I always believe people join companies and start companies with good intentions, but the nuance of these stories show us how things gradually go sideways.
I don’t have many (if any) criticisms of this book except there wasn’t really anything major that I didn’t know. As someone who has followed each Facebook scandal over the years, I had a decent idea about most of the stories. Before reading the book, I was wondering if they’d be able to tell me anything I didn’t know already. I think where this book shines is within the fact that Frenkel and Kang were able to fill in some details that we often don’t hear about in the mainstream, and they were also able to give voices to those who have been trying to do the right thing from within the company. And if nothing else, this is a great historical documentation of the company, so for anyone who isn’t “in the know” and future generations doing research, this is a perfect book for these readers.
What separates this book from others on this topic is the insane amount of research these two put into this book. They conducted hundreds of interviews with current and former Facebook employees to paint a comprehensive picture of what was going on behind the scenes and some of the ethical issues Zuckerberg and Sandberg face. While both Kang and Frenkel express their personal opinions on Twitter, they did an excellent job simply presenting the story with this book so you can form your own opinions about Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and the company as a whole. Due to the extensive amount of interviews, you get to hear what many of the employees were thinking, discussing, and debating during each of the stories, and that was probably my favorite aspect of the book. As an optimist, I always believe people join companies and start companies with good intentions, but the nuance of these stories show us how things gradually go sideways.
I don’t have many (if any) criticisms of this book except there wasn’t really anything major that I didn’t know. As someone who has followed each Facebook scandal over the years, I had a decent idea about most of the stories. Before reading the book, I was wondering if they’d be able to tell me anything I didn’t know already. I think where this book shines is within the fact that Frenkel and Kang were able to fill in some details that we often don’t hear about in the mainstream, and they were also able to give voices to those who have been trying to do the right thing from within the company. And if nothing else, this is a great historical documentation of the company, so for anyone who isn’t “in the know” and future generations doing research, this is a perfect book for these readers.
Pretty shocking read.
I find it hard to see anyone using Facebook after reading this.
It was a well researched book - not as well researched as the Amazon book - [b:Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire|56695159|Amazon Unbound Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire|Brad Stone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1620573018l/56695159._SY75_.jpg|88628916].
This was a particularly important read too.
Some really eye opening bits.
4.7/5
I find it hard to see anyone using Facebook after reading this.
It was a well researched book - not as well researched as the Amazon book - [b:Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire|56695159|Amazon Unbound Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire|Brad Stone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1620573018l/56695159._SY75_.jpg|88628916].
This was a particularly important read too.
Some really eye opening bits.
4.7/5