One of the most important books in recent history

This should be required listening before anyone is allowed to use social media. It is clear that the author is a liberal so conservative listeners may be put off....BUT, politics aside, everything he says regarding social media not only rings true but is backed up with scientific studies. You should get this book “right now.”

11 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Thoughtful and persuasive

This is a provocative summary of some powerful arguments against using social media as they are presently organized. Very well worth a listen.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Wow... wow... WOW. A MUST listen/read for everyone

As a Technologist myself, I’ve seen personally how social media and it’s algorithms can destroy lifelong friendships and even my own marriage. This is the first book I’ve come across that coherently and very effectively describes all the main challenges and the damage social media platforms are causing our society simply because of s faulty business model. I strongly suggest anyone with a social media account of any type read or listen to this book before carrying on in their online life. Lastly, I would like the author, Jaron Lanier, for taking the time to publish this amazing piece of work. I agree with you on all points and thank you for your contribution to helping make our world a better place.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Compelling, must read!

Very cogent arguments by Jaron Lanier. What's the adage, you never get something for nothing? Society has sacrificed too much so that a few technocrats profit, capitalizing on negativity, and manipulating our everyday experiences. The end result is bitter tribalism which ups engagement. Irony is that perhaps the outrage that keeps us hooked might only exist inside the SM matrix, but is spilling over with real world consequences.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Must Read

Wake up humanity to this reality check. Listen carefully to the arguments and make a decision that will benefit you, your loved ones, and your “friends”.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Excellent Overview of Downside of Social Media

There is a lot of good ideas presented in Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier.

However, it's always best to stay objective and "follow the middle path". Actually, it's not necessary to "delete your social media accounts" to accomplish 90% (pick a number) of the goals and objectives Jaron advocates. You can simply use your phone much less and, at the same time, correctly set your privacy, location and ad settings (disable them). While this is not a perfect solution it is much better than the alternative of just deleting your account in a world where many importance services use social media, including your local fire department, utility company and other important services.

The problem with Jaron's hard core perspective is that he does not use social media to engage with the many services that have moved to social media, like the local fire department, rescue services, weather services, tsunami alert services and more. Jaron is a very smart and articular person, but he advocates an unnecessarily extreme position and perhaps that is what he wished to do - "shock and awe the audience".

I think the same applies to food, drink, sex and just about everything. In the Western diet, most of the foods people consume, especially sugar, is bad for the body. We don't tell people do delete all sweet foods from their diet. OK, that's not a very good analogy, but you get the idea. Extremism is not the answer to the social media problem we are facing in society.

You should definitely set your privacy settings on Facebook and Google to not track your location and not use your personal information for ad targeting. You should not use the Login with Facebook feature when you access other sites (never do this) and you should turn off sharing information with any app. If you use your settings correctly. and check them regularly, and restrict Facebook correctly, that will go a long way to take you off the main grid. Also, turn off running Facebook in the background so you are only using Facebook when you are actually using Facebook. Your battery will also last longer.

I really enjoyed Jaron's book and admire his intellect and communications skills. I'm sure I will listen to another one of his audio books. This book was great and I really enjoyed it even though I did find the position Jaron took a bit extreme, especially for someone who does not use social media for the services that benefit so many people. On the other hand, I agree with him that there is a huge problem and tremendous growing pains with social media; but unlike Jaron, I have faith the privacy pendulum will swing back toward more and more privacy choices. It always does.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

The Book to Read/Listen to!

Wow! Just listen, you need to know this information! This book explains in detail most of the recent social issues of the times. It's more than the title says, in ways to help one navigate through social media if one decides to keep their accounts. Read, listen, and decide for yourself, take your power back!

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great topic, but too much of authors politics.

It's unfortunate that with such an intriguing topic, the author kills his own message with him anti-Trump, anti-conservative messages. Does EVERYTHING a liberal does have to tie in Trump? Jesus, all I wanted was to hear/read about the shadyness of behavior modification as I am detaching as well, but I get 5 hours of political behavior modification.

listen to this book!

an absolute must read. listen to it several times if you can. let it sink in deep. so funny that I'm posting this very thing online. enjoy.

Great information

I really liked the book and the performance. My only issue is the author can, at times, come off as a bit pretentious. Otherwise, he gives very good information and he's entirely correct--GET OFF SOCIAL MEDIA!