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Reviews
The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data by Michael P. Lynch
lindy_b's review against another edition
2.0
Other people have said everything in this book before and they have said it better. The analysis is incredibly shallow and the examples given are basic.
One gets the impression that this book was written to fill the last week of a freshmen-level course when students go, "So how does all this philosophy stuff actually have anything to do with my life anyway?"
One gets the impression that this book was written to fill the last week of a freshmen-level course when students go, "So how does all this philosophy stuff actually have anything to do with my life anyway?"
taliaissmart's review against another edition
4.0
More philosophical than I’m used to (or typically gravitate toward), but I really enjoyed it!!! Interesting commentary on knowledge, reason, and the internet.
alexander0's review against another edition
4.0
This book begins by proposing a simple, practical idea: the internet has the power to create pseudo-knowledge by organizing information to explain what we "know" by making assumptions about what we already believe... and that this can be terrible for the search for honest-to-goodness TRUTH.
But, Dr. Lynch says, 'Fear not!' for there are ways to consider how this technology can be pedagogically useful so long as we understand the risks of use. He explains in simple terms how it provides a foundation to allow for changes to economic, political, and educational systems of information, be they progressive or regressive.
For my use, chapters 7 and 8 were particularly reassuring for my own work. (Perhaps this is my own social bubble getting in the way of epistemic truth, but regardless, it's nice to see someone thinking similarly as me on epistemology and knowledge on some level that isn't retired, dead, or academically estranged.)
...and so, with that, I'm back to editing my masters thesis...
But, Dr. Lynch says, 'Fear not!' for there are ways to consider how this technology can be pedagogically useful so long as we understand the risks of use. He explains in simple terms how it provides a foundation to allow for changes to economic, political, and educational systems of information, be they progressive or regressive.
For my use, chapters 7 and 8 were particularly reassuring for my own work. (Perhaps this is my own social bubble getting in the way of epistemic truth, but regardless, it's nice to see someone thinking similarly as me on epistemology and knowledge on some level that isn't retired, dead, or academically estranged.)
...and so, with that, I'm back to editing my masters thesis...
clayton_sanborn's review against another edition
3.0
No more veneration of Socrates. We have passed by the need of venerating Socrates
beauty1991's review against another edition
2.0
Some really good ideas mentioned; however, this was not executed very well. I could bot follow along because it was very poorly written. Maybe it was just me, but I couldn't understand anything past 50 pages and what the point he was getting at was.
lucasmiller's review against another edition
3.0
Surprisingly optimistic for its overall argument that too much information makes it harder to understand anything. This feels like a book written during the Obama administration. (it was published in 2016) It is well researched and intentioned. The writing is straight forward, and all of the worst case scenarios the author hints at have come true a hundredfold. It's not so much that it has aged poorly, it is just that it feels like it was an insightful book written much longer than six years ago.
shallihavemydwarf's review against another edition
3.0
The treatment of the issues was a little more rudimentary than what I hoped (though the book is aimed at a general readership, rather than information professionals), but I appreciated the philosophical bent. There's a bit of the usual technological fearmongering, but not enough to make it tiresome or uninteresting.
hallie_hey's review against another edition
3.0
Lynch brings forward a lot of interesting ideas, but at times doesn't fully flesh out what he's talking about. He teases intriguing thoughts without actually fully drawing them out.
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