In Digital Vertigo, Andrew Keen illuminates today's social media revolution as the most wrenching cultural transformation since the Industrial Revolution. Fusing a fast-paced historical narrative with front-line stories from today's online networking revolution, and critiques of social companies like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, Keen argues that this social media transformation is weakening, disorienting, and dividing us rather than establishing the dawn of a new egalitarian and communal age.
Using Alfred Hitchcock's iconic film Vertigo as a metaphor for the fabric of lies we are being sold, Keen demonstrates the chilling triumph of the digital inspection house in our daily lives. The tragic paradox of life in the social media age, Keen says, is the incompatibility between our internet longings for community and friendship and our equally powerful desire for online individual freedom. By exposing the shallow core of social networks and our increasing captivity to Big Data, Andrew Keen shows us that the more electronically connected we become, the lonelier and less powerful we become too. Digital Vertigo offers a compelling answer to the pervasive digital utilitarianism of our age.
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"This was a fantastic look at how social networking continues the process of isolating man, swarming him the need to update while devastating privacy. Must read." — Geoff (5 out of 5 stars)
"This was a fantastic look at how social networking continues the process of isolating man, swarming him the need to update while devastating privacy. Must read."
" A little too much of a rant with very little depth or science to back it up. Some of the later chapters are very incoherent and off topic (at least seemed so to me). But the basic question is interesting and worth discussion and investigation. "
" Lots of summary of other sources, movies, books, that are then compared to the web. Did not find the analogies particularly convincing and found the criticism unsupported by much, if anything, else. "
" great book, definitely worth reading in this digital age. "
" Good collection of information to show the pattern of increasing dominance of 'social', and a brief primer on the resulting threats. Sadly, seems to be lacking deep insight or tangible calls to action - feels like an unfulfilled promise. "
" Read the Extended Extract free on Kindle. Narcissistic Web 3.0 unpicked... "
" Whilst I think Keen is somewhat alarmist, this well done and does a nice job setting the tech revolution against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. It closes with a sound call to friendship over 'friending'. "
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