Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture
by
Bill Wasik
Breaking news, fresh gossip, tiny scandals, trumped-up crises-every day we are distracted by a culture that rings our doorbell and runs away. Stories spread wildly and die out in mere days, to be replaced by still more stories with ever shorter life spans. Through the Internet the news cycle has been set spinning even faster now that all of us can join the fray: anyone on...more
Hardcover, 202 pages
Published
June 11th 2009
by Viking Adult
(first published April 15th 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
381)
This is a weird book that is difficult to categorize. Not many of tried to do much thinking on how a new generation (the public) generates and consume media narratives and this is the first book to do a good job advancing the science. It is also one of the few books on the internet that I thought was both forward-thinking and intellectually honest. I'd like to think I am in front of this field a bit and seen some things that only a small group has thus far. Trust me, it's not all sunshine and ki...more
As I read this book I often had moments of reflection, interest, confusion, skepticism; in fact, I felt pulled in many different directions. This is, I guess, to be expected when the book describes itself as part memoir, part field report, part manifesto, and part deconstruction of a decade. I found the book initially to get into for this very reason. However, as the book went on, either I became more acclimatized to the editing and writing style or the book became clearer at defending its thesi...more
The creator of the flash mob discusses that and other experiments in meme-making, suggesting that the present age's obsession with "nanostories" is ultimately detrimental to civil discourse and cultural creativity.
The observations and analysis are interesting, as far as they go, but they don't go very far. While some of the examples he explores are illuminating (e.g. the way that the thrill of finding the "hot NEW band" undermines the capacity of alternative bands to have successful second album...more
The observations and analysis are interesting, as far as they go, but they don't go very far. While some of the examples he explores are illuminating (e.g. the way that the thrill of finding the "hot NEW band" undermines the capacity of alternative bands to have successful second album...more
I know this was a pop-non-fiction book, but I still really liked it. It was a quick read and an interesting analysis of an internet obsessed, fad-driven culture. I find myself a victim to this culture quite often, especially lately. I feel so stressed out in following the popular authors, musicians, or pop culture stories of the day that I don't really catch the substance and the value of culture. The author devotes a chapter to indie bands and how they have such a short life of popularity becau...more
He invented the flash mob as a response to boredom. It got big, then died, as viral culture is supposed to. A success even in its downfall.
He started a blog against an indie band and staged a protest no one showed up to, but it's a success because antibuzz gained buzz!
He reported on a meme contest that he secretly also entered and he won $2,500.
He creates a website that compiles the rumors and smears of the 2008 presidential candidates, but ultimately gets little traffic.
And that was the problem...more
He started a blog against an indie band and staged a protest no one showed up to, but it's a success because antibuzz gained buzz!
He reported on a meme contest that he secretly also entered and he won $2,500.
He creates a website that compiles the rumors and smears of the 2008 presidential candidates, but ultimately gets little traffic.
And that was the problem...more
May 30, 2013
Jimmy
added it
I am reviewing this book from the standpoint of a Christian worldview though the book is not Christian. This is a book about the internet and internet sensation, what today people refer to as something "going viral." The author was the founder of "Flash Mob" and his account of how it began, his planning and reflection was an unexpected part of the book--and I think this alone is worth reading the book! What I took away from this book is the fact that things on the internet can come and go at a m...more
Story, news, information, rumor, idea, concept, lie, truth, meme, jest, stupidity--all can be disseminated across the Internet at astounding rates with little critical analysis. Wasik explores (and has experimented with, ala generating flash mobs) the ways and reasons that this happens, including how individuals, groups, and corporations make use of this viral communications medium. It is a worthwhile book for people to understand how meaningless and transient is much of the content transmitted...more
A very well written book, in the craft of the writing. The topic, 'nano-stories' in one that I was curious about and I have learned rather a lot. The down-side is that the author gets quite political. Understandable that politics is an important segment of the viral culture, but the author clearly assumes that no one who doesn't agree with his particular politics will be reading the book - or perhaps he wants to discourage those with different political leanings? Okay, that last is unlikely, but...more
This book is along the lines of Malcolm Gladwell's _Tipping Point_, Clay Shirkey's _Here Comes Everybody_ and just about everything done by Seth Godin on viral marketing. Wasik writes for Wired, and has done real, physical research in internet marketing, which gives me more confidence in him as an authority on the subject. I also liked the charts.
One thing I disliked was that, despite this being a fairly new book. (It was on the new shelf at my library) he talks about last year's election as tho...more
One thing I disliked was that, despite this being a fairly new book. (It was on the new shelf at my library) he talks about last year's election as tho...more
Maybe my expectations were too high, I just haven't felt this disappointed by a book in a while.
How stories live and die in a viral culture is something I have to deal with each day in my job as a news producer. Trying to find just the right story, with mass appeal, and catch lightning in a bottle before it escapes. It's not easy any more by the time you're aware of a story, you learn that was sooo 34 seconds ago.
I hoped to learn more insights from this book about how to deal with current cultur...more
How stories live and die in a viral culture is something I have to deal with each day in my job as a news producer. Trying to find just the right story, with mass appeal, and catch lightning in a bottle before it escapes. It's not easy any more by the time you're aware of a story, you learn that was sooo 34 seconds ago.
I hoped to learn more insights from this book about how to deal with current cultur...more
view 2 comments
Bill Wasik, inventor of flash mobs, writes about how nanostories have created a new form of life all on their own and how they capture and hold our attention for brief periods of time. The other side to that is also that we are so engaged by this nanostories that we have created a demand for them that is so high that we are distilling the life out of them everytime we view the latest new youtube video.
The development of nanostories does not just relate to youtube videos but also news stories ar...more
The development of nanostories does not just relate to youtube videos but also news stories ar...more
There is some good information in this book but you have to be patient to find it. Bill Wasik researches and writes about viral events online through memes and nanostories. In the end, it is difficult to discern what he thinks is the common denominator of viral events. His conclusion seems to come out of nowhere when he says that we need to take responsibility for what we follow online and foster "information environmentalism." By this, he implies that must people are blind followers of complete...more
The first few pages of And Then There's This made me question if it was going to be yet another "pop culture" book, watery and insubstantial. But after a few chapters I realized that it was the subject matter that feels thin; the writer has done a good job tracking (to quote the sub-heading) "how stories live and die in a viral culture." The problem is, the definition of "storytelling" is stretched to the point of unravelling, diluted by novelty, short attention spans, and the ephemeral nature...more
Although I found the concept of the "nanostory" -- the item of cultural notoreity which spreads quickly across the Internet and then fades into obscurity -- interesting, I wasn't as engaged by Wasik's perspective "from the frontlines." After creating the original flash mob, most of the projects he describes feel like they boil down to "let's create the most annoying thing we can create on the internet and see if we can get anybody to pay attention to it."
I can't stand giving up on books, but sometimes it doesn't feel like a struggle. I read a review of this somewhere that suggested maybe the problem with the book is the subject matter (elusive, fast moving, insubstantial) not the book itself. In any case, I had to mark this "read" to get it off my "to read" or "currently reading" list but have marked it "given up," also. Meh. It felt too much like a waste of time. There's probably irony in here somewhere but I'm not sure where to find it.
This is a great book about viral culture and the rise of what Wasik terms nanostories. I found it fascinating, though I don't think it will work for our Freshman Reading, since some of it's content seems dated (yes, even though it was published in 2009, its already dated -- that's how viral culture goes). If you want to read about the history of flash mobs, the spread of memes, and such, I highly recommend this book.
Fun examples of Wasik's antics abound in this quick book. Do not read this if you're looking for hard theoretical arguments about memes or the political process. Here you'll find a practitioner's thoughts on getting humans to exhibit their notorious swarm instinct. Wasik is a provacateur and a good writer too. Worth a read.
This book sounded fascinating (It's a fascinating topic) but I found it somewhat interesting. It was informative, but didn't "wow" me in any way. There was nothing really objectionable, or with which a disagreed; it just didn't "wow" me.
This was an enjoyable read with a few decent statements on modern culture. They were awash in a tide of personal reflection but they were, at least, interesting personal reflections from the creator of the flash mob. The insights in the corporate appropriation of modern collaborative and viral culture wee particularly interesting.
At first I thought that Wasik was going to spend the whole book congratulating himself on his brilliance. Beyond the first chapter, however, this book is well written and insightful. It is one of the few books on viral culture that, I believe, will stand the test of time when so many others are already obsolete.
Ten years ago I read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, and it forever changed how I watch (or rather, now, don't watch) television. Bill Wasik's And Then There's This, while not as groundbreaking for me as Postman's book, nonetheless is an insightful follow-up for those now living in the age of the internet (Postman wrote in 1985). Wasik shows how the internet encourages us to trivialize ourselves to death, and provides a fairly interesting account of how that occurs. The book could hav...more
A good look at the phenom, with Wasik involving himself...but really just a beginning of figuring out what the internet doing to distraction and attention spans.
I'm torn on this book - while I enjoyed the stories and the writing style (which reminded me of Chuck Klosterman), the book felt fragmented and not cohesive as a whole.
great discussion of viral Internet culture. I learned a lot about the beginnings of the viral movement that I was totally unfamiliar with.
Fascinating tales and lessons of viral culture from the man who invented flashmobs. To be featured in The Beachwood Reporter this week.
Oct 03, 2009
Shinynickel
marked it as to-read
Off this review:
And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture
By Bill Wasik (Viking)
In 2003, Bill Wasik started the Mob Project. It involved worshipping mechanical dinosaurs and spawned followers—flash mobs—worldwide. In this compact and whip-smart chronicle, Wasik describes this and the projects that followed, as well as the dawning realization that he was no longer a provocateur but a citizen-scientist whose lab was our meme-obsessed culture. Take heed, social scientists, mar...more
And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture
By Bill Wasik (Viking)
In 2003, Bill Wasik started the Mob Project. It involved worshipping mechanical dinosaurs and spawned followers—flash mobs—worldwide. In this compact and whip-smart chronicle, Wasik describes this and the projects that followed, as well as the dawning realization that he was no longer a provocateur but a citizen-scientist whose lab was our meme-obsessed culture. Take heed, social scientists, mar...more
Mar 06, 2011
Tamara
marked it as to-read
Will require more attention than I can give right now. Must come back to it.
Seemingly similar to The Tipping Point.
Seemingly similar to The Tipping Point.
This book from the creator of the first flash mob is a short examination of viral stories over the last decade. There's no real insight into how viral stories live and thrive, just personal stories with some reference to work of psychology and sociology thrown in for support. Nothing really new in the book except for some of the stories about what Bill Wasik did online. Most of the meat of the book is covered by other books better: The Tipping Point, iThe Black Swan,Freakonomics, Wisdom of Crowd...more
Really entertaining Gladwell-esque study of how cultural events go viral.
Interesting in an obnoxious way.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Bill Wasik is a senior editor of Wired Magazine, and was previously a senior editor at Harper's Magazine. He has also contributed to McSweeney's and served as Editor of The Weekly Week. Mr. Wasik revealed himself in 2006 to be the inventor of the flash mob, having anonymously organized the first recognized examples in New York City during the summer of 2003. [1][2]
Wasik is the author of And Then T...more
More about Bill Wasik...
Wasik is the author of And Then T...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
