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Digital Vertigo: How Today's Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us
by
Andrew Keen
"Digital Vertigo provides an articulate, measured, contrarian voice against a sea of hype about social media. As an avowed technology optimist, I'm grateful for Keen who makes me stop and think before committing myself fully to the social revolution." —Larry Downes, author of The Killer App
InDigital Vertigo, Andrew Keenpresents today’s social media revolution as the most w...more
InDigital Vertigo, Andrew Keenpresents today’s social media revolution as the most w...more
ebook, 240 pages
Published
May 22nd 2012
by St. Martin's Press
(first published May 2012)
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I can't tell if the writing style is a clever attempt to actually induce vertigo, or if this book is simply ridiculously badly written, but I fear it's the latter. It's as if Keen has accumulated a massive clippings file over the last few years, and writing this book was simply a giant jigsaw puzzle of arranging the headlines into something that seemed to have vague coherence, whether it actually made sense or not. It's a scattergun rollcall of Silicon Valley press-releases (many from companies...more
An interesting, if scattershot, musing on privacy and culture.
The first broad sections of the book discuss the pervasive influence of social media, and their overwhelming popularity. His remarks are broad, pessimistic, and sometimes without lines of reasoning. X-website has this feature Y, therefore it is the death of non-digital Y.
He does include a staggering list of start-up social media outlets, and their plans on inserting themselves into modern life. It remains to be seen, however, if the m...more
The first broad sections of the book discuss the pervasive influence of social media, and their overwhelming popularity. His remarks are broad, pessimistic, and sometimes without lines of reasoning. X-website has this feature Y, therefore it is the death of non-digital Y.
He does include a staggering list of start-up social media outlets, and their plans on inserting themselves into modern life. It remains to be seen, however, if the m...more
In 2007, before Nicholas Carr and Jaron Lanier, Andrew Keen published a prescient critique of Web 2.0 culture titled The Cult of the Amateur, a book that anticipated many of the problems of the web today. It was, thankfully, a runaway bestseller.
As both an accomplished academic and an internet entrepreneur, Keen was able to cut through all this self-interest and distraction and portray it as it was. He has largely been proven right. Despite proclamations that we'd all be making our living from b...more
As both an accomplished academic and an internet entrepreneur, Keen was able to cut through all this self-interest and distraction and portray it as it was. He has largely been proven right. Despite proclamations that we'd all be making our living from b...more
I just finished this. I need to think what type of review I write, seeing as it has made me think so much about the internet and social networking in general, that really it could be seen as quite hypocritical to actually publish a review online using a social networking site about a book that takes strips off our social networking. Its made me think, and I think Andrew Keen is clever and quite prophetical about our technological future and the 'social' electronic direction we have taken over th...more
a very cool book about social media and its effects . . i kind of want to give it a four, because it's very copiously researched and well written . . a very enjoyable read . . but other than the author's main problem--privacy issues--there just wasn't enough specific lambasting of social media for having negative effects, etc. . . it's a tirade, but by the end, i just wasn't sure why i was supposed to think that social media was so bad, other than the privacy stuff . don't get me wrong: i kind o...more
Everything is ominous and very much like Jeremy Bentham's "Inspection-house," the precursor to Foucault's Panopticon. Oh no.
I liked Keen's earlier book but this one just sucked. I tried so hard to read it but after about 90 pages I gave up. He just seems alarmist.
The writing is so redundant. How many times do you have to tell me how "chilling" or "creepy" various aspects of social media or new technology are? I get it. You think it's creepy. And so do lots of other people. Keen quotes and note...more
I liked Keen's earlier book but this one just sucked. I tried so hard to read it but after about 90 pages I gave up. He just seems alarmist.
The writing is so redundant. How many times do you have to tell me how "chilling" or "creepy" various aspects of social media or new technology are? I get it. You think it's creepy. And so do lots of other people. Keen quotes and note...more
Keen presents a very good overview of web 3.0 and how it is impacting (from his perspective) our private life. He is an excellent writer which made reading this book pleasurable, although I am not sure I agree with him- he poses many interesting questions about how web 3.0 will impact us as individuals going forward.
His prose is filled with references that cite the writings of current pundits and authors (both fiction and nonfiction) critical and exuberant about web 2.0 and 3.0. He makes assump...more
His prose is filled with references that cite the writings of current pundits and authors (both fiction and nonfiction) critical and exuberant about web 2.0 and 3.0. He makes assump...more
Some writers, having achieved a measure of success in one or more books, fall prey to the illusion that their maunderings and obiter dicta are of sufficient intrinsic interest that they need only write them down to make up another equally worthwhile book. That seems to be what has happened to Andrew Keen. I found *The Cult of the Amateur* an excellent book; I found this one--or rather, the 20 or so pages of it that I read before giving up on it--to be insufferable.
I put this in my "reading might never finish" shelf and returned it to the library only having read half of it, because I was fed up with the bad writing (or bad translation). I'm still curious whether the second half of the book would be more readable / whether the author comes to the point or not. So I might just give it another try in a few weeks.
If you are a fan of Umair Haque, Clay Shirky, Jeff Jarvis, etc and you need some contrarian anti-dose, this book is for you. It puts you back on track for the desire of independent thinking, having your own - truly own - opinion, and being much more aware how we risk becoming sheep in herds manipulated by a few. Absolute recommendation, and a must read for anybody involved with "social" of any form and for anybody involved with Personal Data etc. It's one of the best books i have read this year....more
Well-written and researched, though I wanted to hate it. But that's probably because I AM firmly stuck in the digital vertigo that Keen (probably correctly) admonishes. A wealth of information, though drags a bit in the latter half. Still very much worth a read as it's saying things you almost certainly don't (want to?) believe.
Andrew Keen is a much needed voice of dissension in the study and adoption of social media. Humans are social, true, but also require depth, privacy, and quiet to live lives of any real meaning. Broadcasting locations, photos, and especially thoughts is problematic for a variety of reasons, not the least because it takes away our privacy. Privacy is necessary, and it seems it's one of those things you don't think you need until you really do. We say that openness and transparency make society be...more
This is a good look at social networking and how it's changing our culture. Keen--who's an internet personality (whatever that is)--is having second thoughts about the ramifications of omnipresent internet use and "sharing culture" and this is his rant against it. It's good--especially when discussing privacy and the data-mining that corporations do on social networking--but could have gone a bit more into how social networking changes our interactions with each other. He does talk a little bit...more
Keen is an expert and someone who is in the know. Drops so many start ups, apps, web sites - as a non-expert required me to take a ton of notes and literally go to every web site/app or link to understand the land of digital vertigo. Very informative and agree completely, 3.0 - the internet of people, but can't wait to understand what is to come beyond the digital darlings of Apple, Facebook and Google. Also, no mention of Goodreads.com in this book which is a miss - to highlight a positive aspe...more
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.
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'.
Reviewed for The Oz. Fairly shit book overall. Couldn’t believe the number of typos, would’ve been close to two dozen. Shocking.
Un libro a tesi con pregiudizio, pur con dubbi legittimi sui social media, mal argomentati però nella critica
Read the Extended Extract free on Kindle. Narcissistic Web 3.0 unpicked...
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.
Aug 03, 2012
Owen Cartwright
added it
I was engrossed in this book.... Until it ended very short and very suddenly! Still very much worth reading if you are a social media Geek. Two sides to every coin, and all that jazz;)
Sep 04, 2012
Tyson
added it
About how we put too much of our lives online with facebook, twitter, etc...Thoughtfully written, though the same references seemed to come up. There is a balance to be found in what we share, but nothing replaces true human connection.
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.
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.
great book, definitely worth reading in this digital age.
May 17, 2013
Andrew
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Moerman
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Marcele
marked it as to-read
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Jun 17, 2012 07:58am