emmabeckman 's review for:

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch

4.0

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I really liked this one conceptually and I think the writing was very approachable for all people. I don't think you have to have a lot of prior linguistic or computer science knowledge to get into this book, which is great. I will say, the main downside that I had with this book was that for some reason my eyes definitely glazed over at certain points, and there were times when I would put the book down and just not pick it back up for the rest of the day (odd for me because I usually purposefully make time to read at multiple times during the day, even if it's just for a few minutes). I really had to push myself to keep reading and dedicate time to it and even create a small reward system (i.e. if I get to X page, I will take a break and do some crafting). I think I maybe should have read another book concurrently and let myself take my time, only reading smaller chunks per day, but then I often fall susceptible to just never picking a book up again (see Game of Thrones, One More Thing, How Long Til Black Future Month).

Anyway, this was good and I think people interested in how we use language on the internet will learn something like I did. We're at an extremely interesting point in this history of the internet where there has been a ton of change in what we do on the internet but there are still people around who are ~relatively~ young who remember the earliest days. I think this book does a good job of laying out all of the different generations so far. And her topics are interesting and relatable to internet users of different levels.