Review of 'Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Very enjoyable read. My one qualm is that I wish there was some kind of conclusion chapter that gave a deeper analysis of the stories he shares in the book. The book almost functions as an ethnography, where each chapter is about a different person. I would have been interested in reading something where the author reflects on the experiences and maybe puts some theoretical historical analysis on it.
The chapter I enjoyed reading the most was "the emptiness." The glossary at the end is really helpful too.
Review of 'Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Never in my life was I so happy to reach the end of a book. Normally, if I'm unhappy with a book, I just stop reading, but I found the information in Antisocial so important that I wouldn't let myself stop. I am happy that I reached the end because the last two chapters tell the stories of the mitigation measures social networks are putting into place to stop the spread of hate. The anti-gatekeepers have realized the importance of gate-keeping.
While many (most?) of the actors attempting to influence and change the national conversation through social media have ties to various white supremacist ideologies, many (most?) don't. The most disturbing aspect is that they are literally changing the way American's think about race, politics, and the Constitution for the rush they get from counting clicks, from saying, "I made that meme!"
There are many disturbing stories of false narratives …
Never in my life was I so happy to reach the end of a book. Normally, if I'm unhappy with a book, I just stop reading, but I found the information in Antisocial so important that I wouldn't let myself stop. I am happy that I reached the end because the last two chapters tell the stories of the mitigation measures social networks are putting into place to stop the spread of hate. The anti-gatekeepers have realized the importance of gate-keeping.
While many (most?) of the actors attempting to influence and change the national conversation through social media have ties to various white supremacist ideologies, many (most?) don't. The most disturbing aspect is that they are literally changing the way American's think about race, politics, and the Constitution for the rush they get from counting clicks, from saying, "I made that meme!"
There are many disturbing stories of false narratives that become news and then are picked up by the main stream media in this book, and all of them are frightening. For example, one actor literally created memes about Hilary Clinton's health issues from nothing. He took a picture of her winking and declared that she was having a stroke. He pushed this for weeks and in the book he admits that he had no facts or real evidence in his "news" publications and memes. He literally made it up simply because it would appeal to people's base emotions and generate clicks. His memes were generating quite a bit of interest and being shared on both Twitter and Facebook and other sites. Then Clinton fainted in public after a memorial service. Was she sick at that point, yes. Had she been sick for weeks and had that illness affected her mental capacity, no. However, now the main stream media picked up the story and all of the historical memes (A week old meme on the internet is history.), so the MSM was now questioning her mental and long term health. The false stories now influenced actual news.
Reading this book has made me much more aware and skeptical of shared news on social media. I was always pretty skeptical, but now I know more of what to look for. I'm now aware of the implications around the hashtag #pizzagate, and I saw one of those posts shared on Facebook not too long after I'd read that information in Antisocial. I've learned to recognize in real time some of the tricks being used to influence the narrative.
For example, as I type this review there are several memes and news articles being shared on Facebook and Twitter asking why the main stream media isn't covering the murder of a five year old white boy by a black man. Some of these posts are trying to make a direct comparison to the murder of George Floyd in an effort to de-legitimatize the Black Lives Matter movement. The boy's killer was captured and jailed within 24 hours of the attack. Justice will be served, so the only reason to push either of the two stories, the one just asking where the MSM is and the one with the BLM equivalency, is to generate clicks by imposing on our emotions and to influence the conversation around BLM. The MSM should not give into the click bait, but if recent history serves as a reminder, they will.
As difficult and heart-wrenching as this book is, everyone should read it.
