What do you think?
Rate this book
Fakebook: A True Story, Based on Actual Lies
On October 5th, 2009, Dave posted a note on Facebook announcing that he was quitting his job, dropping everything, and walking west. But what no one knew (save a few collaborators) was that Dave was lying and that his westward travels were all an elaborate hoax.
And so Dave's existence split in two--earning his followers' trust with postings about everyday activities before escalating the story with tales of teepeeing an Amish horse and buggy and thus being forced to work off his debt on the farm. Meanwhile, the real Dave went into hiding, sequestering himself in his parents' empty house and growing more and more lonely.
This humorous, thought-provoking memoir will spark discussions of our social media culture and its impact on our relationships and interactions.
And so Dave's existence split in two--earning his followers' trust with postings about everyday activities before escalating the story with tales of teepeeing an Amish horse and buggy and thus being forced to work off his debt on the farm. Meanwhile, the real Dave went into hiding, sequestering himself in his parents' empty house and growing more and more lonely.
This humorous, thought-provoking memoir will spark discussions of our social media culture and its impact on our relationships and interactions.
306 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2013
18 people are currently reading
2007 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
July 4, 2019
Fakebook sucked me in on the first page and held me all the way to the last. No, even before the first page, the cover sucked me in. And that intriguing subtitle: A True Story. Based on Actual Lies.
I picked it up first thing this morning and just finished it at 5:30 p.m. It's not that I didn't have anything else to do today. I'm babysitting three grandchildren this summer. I cooked breakfast, washed dishes, straightened the house, took the kids to the library, went to the beauty shop for a haircut, took the kids to Pizza Hut for lunch, and oh yes, checked my email and Facebook page several times.
Through it all, my Kindle was close at hand, the adventures and misadventures of real Dave Cicirelli and fake Dave Cicirelli claiming every spare moment. I literally could not put it down. I even read every word of the acknowledgements and lingered over "about the author". Why? Because now I feel like I really know this guy and I want to know him better. What does that mean? It means he is a damn fine writer with a good story to tell.
Fakebook is about a six month period of time when Cicirelli, as a prank, told outrageous lies about his life on Facebook. He didn't make a new account with a false name. He used his own real account account, his real name, and told one whopper of a story after another to his own circle of family and lifelong friends. He started it out of a sense of mischief, telling himself he wanted to see how much he could get people to swallow. But it quickly turned into much more than he expected.
He posted that he was doing something many of us sometimes dream of doing. He said he was quitting his job, chucking his whole life and just walking away. On foot, with only what he could carry in a knapsack on his back. With the help of Google Maps, images found online, and the expert use of Photoshop,he posted updates of his cross country trek with pictures to back him up.
While his Facebook friends followed his journey and envied him for having the guts to actually do it, he continued going into his safe desk job every day. At night he scrambled to write more "story line" and altered photos for Fake Dave.
He had to let his boss and those he worked with in on the joke and his immediate family and closest friend had to know because they were part of his real day-to-day life. Everyone agreed to keep his secret and some joined in by posting their worries and advice for Fake Dave on his wall. The whole thing snowballs, and soon Dave realizes he has a tiger by the tail. He wants to let it go, see the whole thing come to an end, but it isn't an easy thing to do.
Fakebook is more than just a fun and humorous tale of Dave's adventures. In the process of creating Fake Dave, he reveals some truths about himself, his friends, and about the nature of the social media driven world we live in today.
Bottom line: a MUST READ for anyone who has ever logged in to Facebook (or any other social media site).
I read an advance galley provided to me by the publisher. Publishing date is September 3, 2013.
I picked it up first thing this morning and just finished it at 5:30 p.m. It's not that I didn't have anything else to do today. I'm babysitting three grandchildren this summer. I cooked breakfast, washed dishes, straightened the house, took the kids to the library, went to the beauty shop for a haircut, took the kids to Pizza Hut for lunch, and oh yes, checked my email and Facebook page several times.
Through it all, my Kindle was close at hand, the adventures and misadventures of real Dave Cicirelli and fake Dave Cicirelli claiming every spare moment. I literally could not put it down. I even read every word of the acknowledgements and lingered over "about the author". Why? Because now I feel like I really know this guy and I want to know him better. What does that mean? It means he is a damn fine writer with a good story to tell.
Fakebook is about a six month period of time when Cicirelli, as a prank, told outrageous lies about his life on Facebook. He didn't make a new account with a false name. He used his own real account account, his real name, and told one whopper of a story after another to his own circle of family and lifelong friends. He started it out of a sense of mischief, telling himself he wanted to see how much he could get people to swallow. But it quickly turned into much more than he expected.
He posted that he was doing something many of us sometimes dream of doing. He said he was quitting his job, chucking his whole life and just walking away. On foot, with only what he could carry in a knapsack on his back. With the help of Google Maps, images found online, and the expert use of Photoshop,he posted updates of his cross country trek with pictures to back him up.
While his Facebook friends followed his journey and envied him for having the guts to actually do it, he continued going into his safe desk job every day. At night he scrambled to write more "story line" and altered photos for Fake Dave.
He had to let his boss and those he worked with in on the joke and his immediate family and closest friend had to know because they were part of his real day-to-day life. Everyone agreed to keep his secret and some joined in by posting their worries and advice for Fake Dave on his wall. The whole thing snowballs, and soon Dave realizes he has a tiger by the tail. He wants to let it go, see the whole thing come to an end, but it isn't an easy thing to do.
Fakebook is more than just a fun and humorous tale of Dave's adventures. In the process of creating Fake Dave, he reveals some truths about himself, his friends, and about the nature of the social media driven world we live in today.
Bottom line: a MUST READ for anyone who has ever logged in to Facebook (or any other social media site).
I read an advance galley provided to me by the publisher. Publishing date is September 3, 2013.
August 13, 2013
I go back and forth with how I feel about Dave's social experiment. Basically, he started to view Facebook almost as performance art and he began to have very real problems dealing with the fact that you only know what other people share. So, he thought, what if he were to just start making things up?
He decides to make this a six month project and come clean---as naturally you would---on April Fool's Day.
His story begins fairly plausibly ("I quit my job") but immediately takes a turn for the much harder to believe.
While I have some pretty big ethical concerns connected to lying to one's friends, it was such an entertaining story. (Side note: as part of the promotional tour for this book, Dave is doing fun with Photoshop! I was so tempted to get a picture of me and my two best friends, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler but quickly realized that way lies madness. And also, when we really do become best friends, that will be so awkward to explain.)
This story came off as a new version of Catch Me If You Can. Only Dave never (really) stole from anyone. Fake Dave? Well, that's a whole other story...
Recommended.
He decides to make this a six month project and come clean---as naturally you would---on April Fool's Day.
His story begins fairly plausibly ("I quit my job") but immediately takes a turn for the much harder to believe.
While I have some pretty big ethical concerns connected to lying to one's friends, it was such an entertaining story. (Side note: as part of the promotional tour for this book, Dave is doing fun with Photoshop! I was so tempted to get a picture of me and my two best friends, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler but quickly realized that way lies madness. And also, when we really do become best friends, that will be so awkward to explain.)
This story came off as a new version of Catch Me If You Can. Only Dave never (really) stole from anyone. Fake Dave? Well, that's a whole other story...
Recommended.
April 16, 2014
Fakebook is an autobiographical story by Dave Cicirelli, a young man who decided to divorce his Facebook updates from reality. He falsely announced via a Facebook status update that he was quitting his job and going travelling. Most of his Facebook friends believed him, and a few close friends were co-opted into posting supportive comments and messages to increase the believability of his tale. The cover calls this an “elaborate hoax”, but I find that description difficult: there’s nothing particularly elaborate about writing fake Facebook status updates, or posting (badly) Photoshopped photographs.
From this exercise, Cicirelli attempts to make observations about the nature of friendship, life in the digital world, and so on. Unfortunately, his observations are such self-evident truths that they needn’t be demonstrated through this sort of means. Is it necessary to write a book about fooling your friends for six months to realise that friendships change, develop and sometimes disintegrate as lives take different courses?
For me, the whole book just fell flat. For some people, no doubt, the fictional adventures of “Fake Dave” are rip-roaringly hilarious. I’m sure that there’s a segment of the market somewhere that finds the idea of pretending to unravel toilet paper around a horse and cart on an Amish farm hilarious. I suspect Mr Cicirelli himself is in this market segment. I’m afraid I’m not, and so I found the ever-growing succession of such fictional idiocy a drag. I struggled to get through this book.
Other reviewers have expressed concerns about the ethics of the deception involved in this project. I’m not overly concerned by that. Nobody is under any obligation to share the truth on Facebook, and I suspect that most events reported on Facebook are fictionalised to some extent to show their author in a better light. This is nothing more than an extension of that idea.
About a third of the way into the book, there is a delicious moment, however. Mr Cicirelli goes on a date with a girl four years his junior. He explains his online exploits to her, and she gives him short shrift, essentially dismissing the project as deceptive and pointless. In response, Mr Cicirelli calls her immature. He might have done rather better to listen to her.
From this exercise, Cicirelli attempts to make observations about the nature of friendship, life in the digital world, and so on. Unfortunately, his observations are such self-evident truths that they needn’t be demonstrated through this sort of means. Is it necessary to write a book about fooling your friends for six months to realise that friendships change, develop and sometimes disintegrate as lives take different courses?
For me, the whole book just fell flat. For some people, no doubt, the fictional adventures of “Fake Dave” are rip-roaringly hilarious. I’m sure that there’s a segment of the market somewhere that finds the idea of pretending to unravel toilet paper around a horse and cart on an Amish farm hilarious. I suspect Mr Cicirelli himself is in this market segment. I’m afraid I’m not, and so I found the ever-growing succession of such fictional idiocy a drag. I struggled to get through this book.
Other reviewers have expressed concerns about the ethics of the deception involved in this project. I’m not overly concerned by that. Nobody is under any obligation to share the truth on Facebook, and I suspect that most events reported on Facebook are fictionalised to some extent to show their author in a better light. This is nothing more than an extension of that idea.
About a third of the way into the book, there is a delicious moment, however. Mr Cicirelli goes on a date with a girl four years his junior. He explains his online exploits to her, and she gives him short shrift, essentially dismissing the project as deceptive and pointless. In response, Mr Cicirelli calls her immature. He might have done rather better to listen to her.
September 2, 2013
Oh, Facebook. You are both wonderful and horrible in often equal doses. Facebook is great for staying connected to people. It may be horrible to admit but there's some people that I may have not stayed in contact with if it weren't for Facebook. On the other hand, it also helps to take down some walls and social graces that we'd be better off with. Facebook is a good way to get that information out in a heartbeat but should Facebook take the place of old fashioned face to face communication? In my humble (and potentially old-fashioned) opinion, no. In Fakebook, Mr. Cicirelli has some fun at the expense of his Facebook friends and creates a huge lie about what he's doing.
He lies about quitting his job and going on a cross-country journey that gets wilder and wilder with every stop he gets. He keeps it going for almost six months. Almost instantly, his friends are absolutely riveted to his every move. It's an interesting social experiment that we probably see played out on our newsfeeds every day (albeit to a much less degree than FakeDave's Fakebook experiment). Think about it: you probably have your uber- melodramatic friend who puts everything out for anyone to see (in Facebook, there are no barriers). I have a couple of those. You have other people who put really important news on Facebook before they tell the important people in their lives about their news (I've now had two really good friends announce their engagements on Facebook before letting good friends know, which is incredibly hurtful but this is Facebook, where instant gratification is both encouraged and rewarded). Dave uses this book to show how slanted Facebook can make our reality. How much do you really know about these people that you have "friended?"
Yes, this social experiment is easy but if you really thought about Facebook before, you've probably noticed a lot of the things discussed in the book so this book really doesn't cover a lot of new ground but is entertaining nonetheless.
He lies about quitting his job and going on a cross-country journey that gets wilder and wilder with every stop he gets. He keeps it going for almost six months. Almost instantly, his friends are absolutely riveted to his every move. It's an interesting social experiment that we probably see played out on our newsfeeds every day (albeit to a much less degree than FakeDave's Fakebook experiment). Think about it: you probably have your uber- melodramatic friend who puts everything out for anyone to see (in Facebook, there are no barriers). I have a couple of those. You have other people who put really important news on Facebook before they tell the important people in their lives about their news (I've now had two really good friends announce their engagements on Facebook before letting good friends know, which is incredibly hurtful but this is Facebook, where instant gratification is both encouraged and rewarded). Dave uses this book to show how slanted Facebook can make our reality. How much do you really know about these people that you have "friended?"
Yes, this social experiment is easy but if you really thought about Facebook before, you've probably noticed a lot of the things discussed in the book so this book really doesn't cover a lot of new ground but is entertaining nonetheless.
February 22, 2014
DNF
I hate leaving books unfinished but I can't make myself read any more of this. self centred jerk lies and manipulates his facebook friends for laughs, with the help of some terrible Photoshop work. then he complains about how his big lie means he can't go party, while his close friends cop flack for their reactions on his wall - part of the joke.
all of this could maybe be excused if it was written in any sort of interesting manner, but every page is a drag to read and the cut and paste sections of his facebook feed make me cringe.
I hate leaving books unfinished but I can't make myself read any more of this. self centred jerk lies and manipulates his facebook friends for laughs, with the help of some terrible Photoshop work. then he complains about how his big lie means he can't go party, while his close friends cop flack for their reactions on his wall - part of the joke.
all of this could maybe be excused if it was written in any sort of interesting manner, but every page is a drag to read and the cut and paste sections of his facebook feed make me cringe.
September 6, 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The description had piqued my interest and I was delighted to receive it through Goodreads giveaway. It surpassed my expectations. I am in my 70's and thought perhaps too much of it would go over my head. Instead I was up late reading and enjoying.
The author is an excellent writer. He is thoughtful and aware of society and his place in it. I found many of his comments in the prose sections to be thought provoking and illustrative of a mature, considered approach to the Facebook phenomena.
The author also appears to be very creative in both his personal and professional life.
The author is an excellent writer. He is thoughtful and aware of society and his place in it. I found many of his comments in the prose sections to be thought provoking and illustrative of a mature, considered approach to the Facebook phenomena.
The author also appears to be very creative in both his personal and professional life.
November 18, 2013
Fluff. The concept was silly; the writing, lacking.
September 20, 2013
I vaguely recall having heard something on NPR about a guy who faked a scenario in which he said he'd "quit my job in NYC, started walking, visited Amish country, ran off with a farmer's daughter who is now pregnant with our love child, kept heading West, got lured into a cult, escaped via Mexico, had to sneak back into the country, and documented it all for my friends and family on Facebook. Oh, and the whole thing was a sham." Soon thereafter, I saw the book so had to snap it up. I must admit to wanting to really dislike this guy. Who the heck does he think he is?! And then I read the book.
Cicirelli's account is fast-paced, juxtaposes his after-the-fact retelling with select "Fakebook" (as he dubbed his master prank) status updates and friends' responses, and is brutally honest with himself. He did it as a lark, his immediate family (including his parents who really should be nominated for sainthood, in my estimation) and a select group of friends who were given carte blanche to absolutely bust his chops were in on it--not that they all approved, mind you.
All told, Cicirelli's non-misadventure was an enjoyable bit of fluff. Don't try to make it into some grand social science experiment. It was a six-month prank that ended, appropriately enough, on April Fool's Day. In retrospect, of course, it proved something of a learning experience for its perpetrator:
What I most enjoyed about the book had a lot less to do with the whole Fakebook hoax than it did with Cicirelli's observations about himself, about people in general, about social institutions and, above all, about how people use both material and immaterial things to position themselves and manipulate perceptions. As just one quick example, his observation that Rutgers and Princeton are only physically separated by 16 miles provided a quick segue into a quite compelling series of observations about the strategies employed to maintain barriers between those populations. Fakebook included any number of these incidents (e.g., "winning" the high school reunion) and they succeeded precisely for their brevity. He didn't need to overexplain them because we'd all witnessed these or similar things in our own experiences. I suppose this is how he successfully bridged the gap between prankster asshat and something a good bit less annoying. Oh, and the fact that he showed himself being conned by the folks at LiveWired while simultaneously duping a growing network of friends and strangers with the Fakebook project was delicious--as was the line he used when he finally quit that job.
Goodreads, if you'd allow half-stars, I'd be happy to go to 3 1/2 here.
Cicirelli's account is fast-paced, juxtaposes his after-the-fact retelling with select "Fakebook" (as he dubbed his master prank) status updates and friends' responses, and is brutally honest with himself. He did it as a lark, his immediate family (including his parents who really should be nominated for sainthood, in my estimation) and a select group of friends who were given carte blanche to absolutely bust his chops were in on it--not that they all approved, mind you.
All told, Cicirelli's non-misadventure was an enjoyable bit of fluff. Don't try to make it into some grand social science experiment. It was a six-month prank that ended, appropriately enough, on April Fool's Day. In retrospect, of course, it proved something of a learning experience for its perpetrator:
Six months ago, when my finger first lingered over the Enter key, and just before I gave the first words of Fakebook life and allowed them to broadcast to the news feeds of an unsuspecting audience, I had no notion of the consequences of what I was about to do. I didn't think about the people I'd have to avoid or the feelings I'd hurt. I didn't consider the places I couldn't go and the events I couldn't take part in. I didn't consider the many hours a week I would be devoting to my second life, or how I'd have to be ever vigilant of exposure (p. 292).
What I most enjoyed about the book had a lot less to do with the whole Fakebook hoax than it did with Cicirelli's observations about himself, about people in general, about social institutions and, above all, about how people use both material and immaterial things to position themselves and manipulate perceptions. As just one quick example, his observation that Rutgers and Princeton are only physically separated by 16 miles provided a quick segue into a quite compelling series of observations about the strategies employed to maintain barriers between those populations. Fakebook included any number of these incidents (e.g., "winning" the high school reunion) and they succeeded precisely for their brevity. He didn't need to overexplain them because we'd all witnessed these or similar things in our own experiences. I suppose this is how he successfully bridged the gap between prankster asshat and something a good bit less annoying. Oh, and the fact that he showed himself being conned by the folks at LiveWired while simultaneously duping a growing network of friends and strangers with the Fakebook project was delicious--as was the line he used when he finally quit that job.
Goodreads, if you'd allow half-stars, I'd be happy to go to 3 1/2 here.
February 2, 2016
I liked the concept, not as much the execution. I thought it would be a lot about interesting ways people reacted to his "experiment", but most of the reactions were people in the know or sarcasm and such. I couldn't connect that well with his personality or life or why he made the story go the way he did exactly, and it didn't really seem like something he needed to publish for the world to see. His deeper interpretation of the whys and parallels to struggles in his real life were mostly things he tried to find later... So again, interesting idea but not many actual insights.
Some quotes I liked:
".. Facebook isn't just a website. It's an experience, and a deeply strange, deeply personal one. It involves almost everyone you know and everyone you once knew....The relationships may not have evolved in years, but with Facebook, they haven't disappeared either. It's the cold storage unit of friendships, keeping them on hold, just one compelling post away from revival." -p.40
"'...a million different things are happening all at once, and it's only after the fact that we pick and choose the details that are important. We find evidence for an event once it's already occurred and convince ourselves it was obvious all along.'" -p.70
"Because what he was really after was a happy ending. Don't I feel that way? Doesn't everyone? But in real life, there are no endings. Life simply goes on." -p. 278
".. And your news feed is a reminder that other people's stories don't end just because we stopped sharing a stage." -p.298
Clearly I liked these parts where he started waxing philosophical about the Facebook experience and its role in our modern lives.
Some quotes I liked:
".. Facebook isn't just a website. It's an experience, and a deeply strange, deeply personal one. It involves almost everyone you know and everyone you once knew....The relationships may not have evolved in years, but with Facebook, they haven't disappeared either. It's the cold storage unit of friendships, keeping them on hold, just one compelling post away from revival." -p.40
"'...a million different things are happening all at once, and it's only after the fact that we pick and choose the details that are important. We find evidence for an event once it's already occurred and convince ourselves it was obvious all along.'" -p.70
"Because what he was really after was a happy ending. Don't I feel that way? Doesn't everyone? But in real life, there are no endings. Life simply goes on." -p. 278
".. And your news feed is a reminder that other people's stories don't end just because we stopped sharing a stage." -p.298
Clearly I liked these parts where he started waxing philosophical about the Facebook experience and its role in our modern lives.
April 7, 2014
Although there are some interesting insights as well as some laugh-out-loud moments in this memoir about a twentysomething who created an outlandishly false Facebook persona, there were so many irritating aspects that it took me a while to finish it. I kept putting it down in annoyance, even though it is entertaining enough.
There are guilty pleasures in some of the bad jokes in this book, of course, and the whole thing is basically a massive joke. At the same time, there are some serious aspects.
Dave Cicirelli ultimately comes to the point where he recognizes that some of the things that had led to distance from his friends is the fact that by the time people are in the second half of their 20s things have changed in their friendships. I know: No kidding. But, the insightful aspect is his realization that the reasons distances form is that youthful choices are beginning to have real-life consequences. That is, being an art major puts you on a different life track and gives you different options than being a doctor or an Ivy League M.B.A. Yes, that should be obvious as well -- but I think many people don't figure that out until it is "too late," so to speak.
There are guilty pleasures in some of the bad jokes in this book, of course, and the whole thing is basically a massive joke. At the same time, there are some serious aspects.
Dave Cicirelli ultimately comes to the point where he recognizes that some of the things that had led to distance from his friends is the fact that by the time people are in the second half of their 20s things have changed in their friendships. I know: No kidding. But, the insightful aspect is his realization that the reasons distances form is that youthful choices are beginning to have real-life consequences. That is, being an art major puts you on a different life track and gives you different options than being a doctor or an Ivy League M.B.A. Yes, that should be obvious as well -- but I think many people don't figure that out until it is "too late," so to speak.
September 23, 2015
Disclaimer: I was lucky enough to win an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through a Goodreads giveaway! Thank you!
Soooo I accidentally left this book at my boyfriend's family's house, and only just got it back. But reviewing this late is better than never, right?
It took me some time to become invested in this book. Dave is a hilarious writer who makes you feel like you know him, but it took me some time to get wrapped up in the plot.
I liked the premise of this book. I enjoy reading social experiment memoirs and this was no exception. Dave's fictional 'adventure' on Facebook raises many important questions about privacy, and how we are following old friends and colleagues through social media without actually knowing them or what they're up to.
I liked the parallels between Dave's fictional life and his real life - his misadventures in dating, and in his career path.
Dave is an entertaining writer, I'd like to read more from him.
Soooo I accidentally left this book at my boyfriend's family's house, and only just got it back. But reviewing this late is better than never, right?
It took me some time to become invested in this book. Dave is a hilarious writer who makes you feel like you know him, but it took me some time to get wrapped up in the plot.
I liked the premise of this book. I enjoy reading social experiment memoirs and this was no exception. Dave's fictional 'adventure' on Facebook raises many important questions about privacy, and how we are following old friends and colleagues through social media without actually knowing them or what they're up to.
I liked the parallels between Dave's fictional life and his real life - his misadventures in dating, and in his career path.
Dave is an entertaining writer, I'd like to read more from him.
January 26, 2014
I picked this book up because, like most people, I am addicted to Facebook and still completely in awe that I am in touch with people I haven't seen since grade school and some I don't believe I actually spoke a word to in real life.
This book delivered all it promised. A guy makes up a story about leaving his job and beginning a walk across the country and people believe him. I mean, of course they would, why would anyone lie on Facebook? And so begins a wild adventure of lies told and comments posted, some by people who are in on the prank.
I am not ashamed to say I enjoyed every page of this story. It was fun and made me laugh out loud. The thing that really got me though is that the author seemed to actually learn something about himself through this experience he created and that is all I could ever hope for in my own personal quest for adventure.
One question lingers however. Is this indeed a true story based on actual lies or just a story and not real at all?
This book delivered all it promised. A guy makes up a story about leaving his job and beginning a walk across the country and people believe him. I mean, of course they would, why would anyone lie on Facebook? And so begins a wild adventure of lies told and comments posted, some by people who are in on the prank.
I am not ashamed to say I enjoyed every page of this story. It was fun and made me laugh out loud. The thing that really got me though is that the author seemed to actually learn something about himself through this experience he created and that is all I could ever hope for in my own personal quest for adventure.
One question lingers however. Is this indeed a true story based on actual lies or just a story and not real at all?
March 24, 2016
I have only read a small bit of this book, but I already find the author irritating. He strikes me as one of those mischievous imps who think they are very clever and feel they must impress that upon everyone else. He reports his story with such a sniggering disdain for those who believed his lies that I wonder if their friendships survived the publication of this book.
I realize his was a social experiment of sorts, but I got the impression it was really just a story about him, his cleverness and how he managed to fool a lot of people. I'm not a fan of this sort of expose - it's right up (down) there with pranks and practical jokes in my opinion. Cicirelli seems like a jerk and his lies weren't even all that interesting. TP-ing an Amish house for instance?
Wouldn't it be a funny and refreshing twist if it was revealed that Cicirelli's friends only pretended to believe his lies so that he would stay gone and they wouldn't have to deal with him in person?
I realize his was a social experiment of sorts, but I got the impression it was really just a story about him, his cleverness and how he managed to fool a lot of people. I'm not a fan of this sort of expose - it's right up (down) there with pranks and practical jokes in my opinion. Cicirelli seems like a jerk and his lies weren't even all that interesting. TP-ing an Amish house for instance?
Wouldn't it be a funny and refreshing twist if it was revealed that Cicirelli's friends only pretended to believe his lies so that he would stay gone and they wouldn't have to deal with him in person?
May 25, 2017
DNF - I wasn't so much interested in Cicirelli's fake trip on facebook as I was in the reactions of other people to his "trip". He seemed both surprised and happy that people would believe him (and to be honest it does seem far fetched that anyone would) and then also annoyed that anyone would be upset or think him ridiculous. This book is more a synopsis of his year faking life on facebook than any commentary about that year - except for the occasional whining when it got hard to do or when he would tell someone and they would get angry. I made it more than halfway through before it just got tedious. I read the kindle version so not sure if just that version didn't have any of the photos or not, but some of the faked photos would have been useful as part of the story. But then again so would an editor and a little research, so photos may be asking for too much.
May 15, 2018
A clever illustration as to how what we read on Facebook is not the exact truth of anyone's life but, rather, the elements that person wants seen and known, with the "boring" and "messy" and "bad" stuff left out so a false story is created. Anyone who has been to Universal Studios and watched: a. the clips being filmed then b. assembled into a brief movie--everything in the final movie actually happened but to have only watched everything as it happened one would have had a much different story than the one presented by the final movie.
The author does the above by creating a fake life for himself which has him walking out of his job and walking on to Amish country and ending up in Mexico, with many adventures along the way.
So much food for thought here--like once one has created a fake persona to live a fake life, that persona can do anything! AND it could be read about and believed by everyone else in the same way as if it was true. Really makes one think then, why bother with putting real but boring events on one's Facebook page when one could have a truly sparkling life, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, so simply.
The author also reflects how Facebook keeps one tied to people who should have moved out of one's life long ago. Those who grew past people before Facebook existed, understand the need for this moving on. Those who began on Facebook in high school, for example, may not understand this because people will simply never move out of their life now as long as they are both on Facebook.
Yet those young ones will never understand the need to move people out of one's life so there is room for new people to enter. Also, that time spent attempting to maintain many shallow relationships prevents deeper ones from forming.
The author also realized that many his age and younger, after time on Facebook, begin to feel that the doing of something is not so important as the posting of the thing. He talks about going on dates and having a new relationship--yet feeling like it didn't count because he could not share it with his Facebook friends. And that is the way the mind works, it can value the posting and sharing over the actual doing--but the mind is wrong here! The doing is ALL.
The author does the above by creating a fake life for himself which has him walking out of his job and walking on to Amish country and ending up in Mexico, with many adventures along the way.
So much food for thought here--like once one has created a fake persona to live a fake life, that persona can do anything! AND it could be read about and believed by everyone else in the same way as if it was true. Really makes one think then, why bother with putting real but boring events on one's Facebook page when one could have a truly sparkling life, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, so simply.
The author also reflects how Facebook keeps one tied to people who should have moved out of one's life long ago. Those who grew past people before Facebook existed, understand the need for this moving on. Those who began on Facebook in high school, for example, may not understand this because people will simply never move out of their life now as long as they are both on Facebook.
Yet those young ones will never understand the need to move people out of one's life so there is room for new people to enter. Also, that time spent attempting to maintain many shallow relationships prevents deeper ones from forming.
The author also realized that many his age and younger, after time on Facebook, begin to feel that the doing of something is not so important as the posting of the thing. He talks about going on dates and having a new relationship--yet feeling like it didn't count because he could not share it with his Facebook friends. And that is the way the mind works, it can value the posting and sharing over the actual doing--but the mind is wrong here! The doing is ALL.
October 4, 2022
ෆේස්බුක් සහ ෆේක්බුක්
ඔහු නමින් Dave Cicirelli .වෘත්තියෙන් දැන්වීම් ප්රචාරක ආයතනයක පරිගණක නිර්මාණ ශිල්පියෙක් .කලා අධ්යක්ෂවරයෙක් .නිව්යෝර්ක් නගරයේ ගෙවන ඒකාකාරී ජීවිතය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වෙනස් විදිහක හැගීමක් ඔහුට තිබ්බා . ඔහු අපූරු වැඩකට අත ගැසුවා. ෆේස්බුක් සමාජජාලයේ ගත කරන ඔහු ඒවායේ දකින ප්රබන්ධමය ස්වරූපය ඇසුරින් වෙනස් ආකාරයක යමක් කිරීමටත් හිතාගත්තා . ඒ තමයි ෆේක්බුක් (fakebook) සංකල්පය .තමන් කරමින් සිටි රැකියාවෙන් ඉවත්ව ඇමරිකාව හරහා ගමනක් යාමට ඔහු පටන් ගන්නවා. ඒ ගමන ගැන දිනපතා ෆේස්බුක් සටහන් සහ ඡායාරූප එකතු කරනවා. විශාල පිරිසක් ඔහුගේ ගමන ගැන විමතිය සතුට එක්කරමින් සටහන් තබලා තියෙනවා .වරෙක පෙම්වතියක් හමු වෙනවා. විටෙක පොලිස් අත්අඩංගුවට පත් වෙනවා .පවුලේ සාමාජිකයින් පවා ඒ සටහන් වලට ප්රතිචාර සටහන් එකතු කරනවා. මේ සියල්ල ඔහු ෆේස්බුක් පිටුවට එක් කරනුයේ ඔහුගේ නිව්යෝර්ක් නුවර කාමරේ සිටයි. අවසානයේ ඔහු එය තමා දුටු සිහිනයක් බවට සටහනක් තබමින් facebook ගමන නිමා කරනවා .ඔහුගේම ගමන පිළිබඳ සටහන් විස්තරය fakebook A true story.based on actual lies නමින් පොතක් ලෙස පළ කර නවා ."ෆේස්බුක් යනු තවත් එක් අලෙවිකරණ ක්රමයක් .අපගේ ජීවිතවල දිදුලන පැතිකඩ අපටත් අන් අය වෙතත් අලෙවි කරනවා .අන් අයගේ අවධානය අප වෙත ලබා ගනිමින් අන් අය අපිව දකින විදිහ පාලනය කරනවා. යතුරු සිදුරෙන් බැලීම් සහ ආත්ම රාගය හැර මට නම් අන් දෙයක් මෙහි නොමැත" ඒ Cicirelli ගේ අදහස. (පිටුව 11 )
2009 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ සිට 2010 අප්රේල් දක්වා ඔහුගේ facebook සටහන් එකතුව fakebook කෘතියට ඇතුළත් වෙනවා .
දශකයකටත් එහා පැරණි සිදුවීමක් වුවත් ෆේස්බුක් පිළිබඳ ඇති වී තියෙන නව කතිකාව තුළ මේ ගැනත් සිතා බැලිය යුතු යැයි සිතුනා.
විජයානන්ද රූපසිංහ
ඔහු නමින් Dave Cicirelli .වෘත්තියෙන් දැන්වීම් ප්රචාරක ආයතනයක පරිගණක නිර්මාණ ශිල්පියෙක් .කලා අධ්යක්ෂවරයෙක් .නිව්යෝර්ක් නගරයේ ගෙවන ඒකාකාරී ජීවිතය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වෙනස් විදිහක හැගීමක් ඔහුට තිබ්බා . ඔහු අපූරු වැඩකට අත ගැසුවා. ෆේස්බුක් සමාජජාලයේ ගත කරන ඔහු ඒවායේ දකින ප්රබන්ධමය ස්වරූපය ඇසුරින් වෙනස් ආකාරයක යමක් කිරීමටත් හිතාගත්තා . ඒ තමයි ෆේක්බුක් (fakebook) සංකල්පය .තමන් කරමින් සිටි රැකියාවෙන් ඉවත්ව ඇමරිකාව හරහා ගමනක් යාමට ඔහු පටන් ගන්නවා. ඒ ගමන ගැන දිනපතා ෆේස්බුක් සටහන් සහ ඡායාරූප එකතු කරනවා. විශාල පිරිසක් ඔහුගේ ගමන ගැන විමතිය සතුට එක්කරමින් සටහන් තබලා තියෙනවා .වරෙක පෙම්වතියක් හමු වෙනවා. විටෙක පොලිස් අත්අඩංගුවට පත් වෙනවා .පවුලේ සාමාජිකයින් පවා ඒ සටහන් වලට ප්රතිචාර සටහන් එකතු කරනවා. මේ සියල්ල ඔහු ෆේස්බුක් පිටුවට එක් කරනුයේ ඔහුගේ නිව්යෝර්ක් නුවර කාමරේ සිටයි. අවසානයේ ඔහු එය තමා දුටු සිහිනයක් බවට සටහනක් තබමින් facebook ගමන නිමා කරනවා .ඔහුගේම ගමන පිළිබඳ සටහන් විස්තරය fakebook A true story.based on actual lies නමින් පොතක් ලෙස පළ කර නවා ."ෆේස්බුක් යනු තවත් එක් අලෙවිකරණ ක්රමයක් .අපගේ ජීවිතවල දිදුලන පැතිකඩ අපටත් අන් අය වෙතත් අලෙවි කරනවා .අන් අයගේ අවධානය අප වෙත ලබා ගනිමින් අන් අය අපිව දකින විදිහ පාලනය කරනවා. යතුරු සිදුරෙන් බැලීම් සහ ආත්ම රාගය හැර මට නම් අන් දෙයක් මෙහි නොමැත" ඒ Cicirelli ගේ අදහස. (පිටුව 11 )
2009 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ සිට 2010 අප්රේල් දක්වා ඔහුගේ facebook සටහන් එකතුව fakebook කෘතියට ඇතුළත් වෙනවා .
දශකයකටත් එහා පැරණි සිදුවීමක් වුවත් ෆේස්බුක් පිළිබඳ ඇති වී තියෙන නව කතිකාව තුළ මේ ගැනත් සිතා බැලිය යුතු යැයි සිතුනා.
විජයානන්ද රූපසිංහ
May 6, 2020
Rating: 4.99/5.00
"I think most of us share a collective anxiety about how Facebook has changed the social paradigm. There is no such thing as falling out of touch anymore. Over time our relationships just devolve into newsfeeds that nurture both voyeurism and narcissism. We select a version of ourselves and present it to an audience with every new post."
Wow, I am just beyond mind-blown by the execution of Fakebook throughout those 303 pages. Dave Cicirelli definitely does an excellent job in portraying how manipulative some people's Facebook statuses can be. At the same time, it also reflects on how dumb and ignorant we can be by believing into those updates, regardless of our intelligence and ability to think rationally. I love how he conveys these messages in such an innovative and beautiful approach that always keeps his readers on their feet, waiting to see how fake Dave's story will turn out like. To sum up, a highly-recommended book for everyone to read.
All in all, "We've never been more connected, yet never more isolated".
"I think most of us share a collective anxiety about how Facebook has changed the social paradigm. There is no such thing as falling out of touch anymore. Over time our relationships just devolve into newsfeeds that nurture both voyeurism and narcissism. We select a version of ourselves and present it to an audience with every new post."
Wow, I am just beyond mind-blown by the execution of Fakebook throughout those 303 pages. Dave Cicirelli definitely does an excellent job in portraying how manipulative some people's Facebook statuses can be. At the same time, it also reflects on how dumb and ignorant we can be by believing into those updates, regardless of our intelligence and ability to think rationally. I love how he conveys these messages in such an innovative and beautiful approach that always keeps his readers on their feet, waiting to see how fake Dave's story will turn out like. To sum up, a highly-recommended book for everyone to read.
All in all, "We've never been more connected, yet never more isolated".
March 2, 2020
DNF
Here is the thing. I do not leave books in the middle no matter how bad they are but this...I gotta say this is the first time I decided to not finish a book. And I have no regrets whatsoever.
Even bad books has something; mainly a story. This? Not a story like a fiction and not factual like non-fiction. What this felt like was an individual mindlessly chatting when you dont want them to so I decided to get up and leave in order to stop them from talking to me.
I honestly do think the idea behind this is good but damn, the execution? Not that great. Every single word, sentence, made my eyes only more droopier and my brain more dead, as I read them. Nothing in this book seemed to excite me or keep me going.
Chefs tend to discard flavorful dishes when it is terribly bland. That is exactly how I feel about this book. Absolutely bland, no substance.
This book deserves 0 star. But need to give something, hence the 1 star.
Here is the thing. I do not leave books in the middle no matter how bad they are but this...I gotta say this is the first time I decided to not finish a book. And I have no regrets whatsoever.
Even bad books has something; mainly a story. This? Not a story like a fiction and not factual like non-fiction. What this felt like was an individual mindlessly chatting when you dont want them to so I decided to get up and leave in order to stop them from talking to me.
I honestly do think the idea behind this is good but damn, the execution? Not that great. Every single word, sentence, made my eyes only more droopier and my brain more dead, as I read them. Nothing in this book seemed to excite me or keep me going.
Chefs tend to discard flavorful dishes when it is terribly bland. That is exactly how I feel about this book. Absolutely bland, no substance.
This book deserves 0 star. But need to give something, hence the 1 star.
March 18, 2020
It was an easy and fun enough book. I enjoyed the contributing pictures and Facebook posts... And I was curious to see where the story went and how it ended up. How can he get himself out of his web of lies?
But therein lies the problem... It was all made up, all a dopey elaborate hoax, based on a stupid story of running off to Amish country. (I grew up in Amish country... Not sure why people are so fascinated, they're just regular people. Boring, like the rest of us! lol So this part did not intrigue or excite me in any way). Plus, it wasn't especially funny.
I actually hated the lying, and then his rationalizing it into a "social experiment." Seemed convoluted. Besides, your Facebook friends are real people, and I wouldn't want to lie or manipulate them in person or virtually.
But therein lies the problem... It was all made up, all a dopey elaborate hoax, based on a stupid story of running off to Amish country. (I grew up in Amish country... Not sure why people are so fascinated, they're just regular people. Boring, like the rest of us! lol So this part did not intrigue or excite me in any way). Plus, it wasn't especially funny.
I actually hated the lying, and then his rationalizing it into a "social experiment." Seemed convoluted. Besides, your Facebook friends are real people, and I wouldn't want to lie or manipulate them in person or virtually.
March 13, 2019
I downloaded this memoir onto my Kindle for airplane reading, thinking it sounded like a light, enjoyable—perhaps even goofy—read. It was enjoyable all right, but also thought-provoking. The story: Feeling inadequate after reading friends' Facebook posts about their accomplishments and adventures, Cicirelli concocts a wildly uncharacteristic online life for himself, posting about such fictitious exploits as trashing an Amish buggy, running away with the Amish farmer's daughter, and falling in with a religious cult. Before long, the ongoing prank begins to complicate his real life and leads him to explore his true identity, as well as the ramifications of social media.
July 13, 2019
Funny and speaks to my current 25-year-old self. The prankster inside is wanting to recreate the experience on my own Facebook, but with a lack of photoshop skills, a pretty public job in a small town, and the fact that its been done already-- it's likely I won't. If you want a fast read that'll keep you giggling through most of it, this is definitely a winner.
February 23, 2018
Rating: 5/10
Pages: 170
This was an interesting read, with a lot of humor in the early years of Facebook. While somewhat introspective, it really captures the newness of Facebook ten years ago. It did get a bit slow at times.
Location: Amazon
Pages: 170
This was an interesting read, with a lot of humor in the early years of Facebook. While somewhat introspective, it really captures the newness of Facebook ten years ago. It did get a bit slow at times.
Location: Amazon
January 19, 2021
Not much substance, just a story about how he lied to everyone on Facebook for six months, and how boring and lonely it was. Also, he's bad at relationships, probably because he's really immature. He's 26, and the biggest thing he's got going in his life is a long-term prank. I couldn't relate.
July 30, 2018
2,5 stars.
December 4, 2025
I thought the premise was interesting but the book was boring and stupid. A good example why one should limit screen time.
December 28, 2015
If you are fascinated by bad taste and the bad choices your acquaintances make in oversharing, this is worth a read. If you find yourself laughing at how most people don't realize how badly they "come off" online or their ignorance offends you to the point of hiding or deleting them, you must see this train wreck called Fakebook. I feel sorry for Dave's friends who invested themselves in feeling concern for him. Still, I think leaving the party before it gets boring doesn't apply to Facebook. Be patient. It's going to sound strange but many people seem to be on Facebook to learn more about themselves. Many people are already faking it online whether they know it or not: They are a parody of themselves. I have a few close friends whose online voice is a relative stranger to me compared to the face time we've actually had. I have few friends that are under 25 but I have them hidden from my feed for the same reason I quit watching reality shows on MTV. At 43, the problems we have at 23 seem much smaller.
On Dave, he does promotional work for the toy industry so Dave has deep familairity with Photoshop and making a fantasy look like it actually happened. In the print version of the book, I gotta say that more than one of his photos look uncomfortably surreal, and fake. Even in small grayscale halftone form.
Sidebar: I was in the middle of this book when an acquaintance began a week long Facebook thread where he literally cried for help from a bench in a roller rink. It was an actual "I've fallen and I can't get up!" post with immediacy I'd never seen on Facebook before. Once in a while, a friend stranded by unreliable transportation isn't so unusual but posting a status update moments after breaking his ankle seemed unfathomable. In the following days there was a picture of his leg in a cast. Then there was his point of view from one of those handicapped shopping gocarts from WalMart. Then a pic of his wife struggling to assemble a walker for him. Then a link to a Craig's List ad where he was selling his skates and wrist guards. The leg cast photo only showed one leg (centered and shot from straight down) which implied that he might have a third leg. The point of my story is that pre-Fakebook, this seemed desperate. Then it seemed fake. Then it actually turned out to be 100% real. It was just how it was documented that made it seem so dramatic. This is the one flaw I see in Dave's work. Dave felt the need to argue with supporters and critics while wasting his batteries during the time he was allegedly stuck in an Amish home where I assume had no means of charging his phone. Also, few friends actually use their phone to call Dave's phone. There have been a couple of other books that offered a snapshot of how emerging technologies greatly influenced relationships. Chuck Klosterman writes such musings as did Jon Katz in the late 90s when he wrote about "Geeks" who spend all of their free time online. Dave helped me revisit and appreciate what a pain dating was in my twenties when a girl just 4 years younger or older can seem so incompatible. Dave dated a girl 4 years younger meaning she has been on Facebook when high school ended, never having "reconnected" to people she otherwise would have lost contact with.
I'm not giving much away here when I say that most of Dave's friends went through a range of no less than three emotions when they learned the last six months was all an illusion. Kudos to Dave for showing his friends that we are not as in touch as we think we are. Dave adds that: "There is no such thing as falling out of touch anymore." Or so we believe when we see newsfeeds constantly.
Dave wrote a true story based on actual lies. He told everyone he was quitting his job and walking west with no goal in mind. It's harsh and he pulled it off for six whole months. I might have given this a fifth star except being "in" on the joke made it more uncomfortable at times.
"I think most of us share a collective anxiety about how Facebook has changed the social paradigm. There is no such thing as falling out of touch anymore. Over time our relationships, just devolve into newsfeeds that nurture both voyeurism and narcissism. We select a version of ourselves and present it to an audience with every new post. I find this fascinating, and wanted to exploit and subvert this phenomenon." –Dave Cicirelli, Author of Fakebook
On Dave, he does promotional work for the toy industry so Dave has deep familairity with Photoshop and making a fantasy look like it actually happened. In the print version of the book, I gotta say that more than one of his photos look uncomfortably surreal, and fake. Even in small grayscale halftone form.
Sidebar: I was in the middle of this book when an acquaintance began a week long Facebook thread where he literally cried for help from a bench in a roller rink. It was an actual "I've fallen and I can't get up!" post with immediacy I'd never seen on Facebook before. Once in a while, a friend stranded by unreliable transportation isn't so unusual but posting a status update moments after breaking his ankle seemed unfathomable. In the following days there was a picture of his leg in a cast. Then there was his point of view from one of those handicapped shopping gocarts from WalMart. Then a pic of his wife struggling to assemble a walker for him. Then a link to a Craig's List ad where he was selling his skates and wrist guards. The leg cast photo only showed one leg (centered and shot from straight down) which implied that he might have a third leg. The point of my story is that pre-Fakebook, this seemed desperate. Then it seemed fake. Then it actually turned out to be 100% real. It was just how it was documented that made it seem so dramatic. This is the one flaw I see in Dave's work. Dave felt the need to argue with supporters and critics while wasting his batteries during the time he was allegedly stuck in an Amish home where I assume had no means of charging his phone. Also, few friends actually use their phone to call Dave's phone. There have been a couple of other books that offered a snapshot of how emerging technologies greatly influenced relationships. Chuck Klosterman writes such musings as did Jon Katz in the late 90s when he wrote about "Geeks" who spend all of their free time online. Dave helped me revisit and appreciate what a pain dating was in my twenties when a girl just 4 years younger or older can seem so incompatible. Dave dated a girl 4 years younger meaning she has been on Facebook when high school ended, never having "reconnected" to people she otherwise would have lost contact with.
I'm not giving much away here when I say that most of Dave's friends went through a range of no less than three emotions when they learned the last six months was all an illusion. Kudos to Dave for showing his friends that we are not as in touch as we think we are. Dave adds that: "There is no such thing as falling out of touch anymore." Or so we believe when we see newsfeeds constantly.
Dave wrote a true story based on actual lies. He told everyone he was quitting his job and walking west with no goal in mind. It's harsh and he pulled it off for six whole months. I might have given this a fifth star except being "in" on the joke made it more uncomfortable at times.
"I think most of us share a collective anxiety about how Facebook has changed the social paradigm. There is no such thing as falling out of touch anymore. Over time our relationships, just devolve into newsfeeds that nurture both voyeurism and narcissism. We select a version of ourselves and present it to an audience with every new post. I find this fascinating, and wanted to exploit and subvert this phenomenon." –Dave Cicirelli, Author of Fakebook
February 6, 2018
This book was pretty good...funny! I can't imagine making your whole life a big lie and people believing it.
March 19, 2019
Entertaining enough to read about his experiment, but I thought there'd be more analysis on social media.
January 5, 2023
Fakebook
A true story by Dave Cicirelli who works as a graphics designer. Dave decides to create a whole fake life about himself and posts it on Facebook. He eventually calls this experiment “Fakebook”.
It all starts when he would set a prank that he is quitting his full-time job and is going on a walking journey through out the United States to find his true self and real identity. He starts posting about this fake journey creating fake pictures using Photoshop of himself living a totally different life. While doing he intentionally messes his whole reputation by creating demeaning fake life events. He also agrees with a couple of his friends and his dad to go along with him in the comments section on Facebook to make the whole experiment more believable.
How will his real life get entangled with his fake Facebook life? This is all discussed in the book.
The book is very simple to read and enjoyable until its middle. Where I started feeling that the writer is more into just writing for the sake of creating more pages. I really enjoyed all his reflections about Facebook and how it adds a new dimension to relationships. We have not met some people in our lives for years but somehow, we know their day-to-day life and life updates through Facebook. It does not really give a closure to relationships that simply no longer exists in real life.
I agreed with most of his thoughts on the extent of how much people are submerged into social media and willing to believe things that are not real.
The book raises many questions about our relationship with social media and its effect on our lives. The responses and reactions the writer received from his Facebook friends were astonishing sometimes. Which leads us to the big question, how much are we willing to believe social media?
A true story by Dave Cicirelli who works as a graphics designer. Dave decides to create a whole fake life about himself and posts it on Facebook. He eventually calls this experiment “Fakebook”.
It all starts when he would set a prank that he is quitting his full-time job and is going on a walking journey through out the United States to find his true self and real identity. He starts posting about this fake journey creating fake pictures using Photoshop of himself living a totally different life. While doing he intentionally messes his whole reputation by creating demeaning fake life events. He also agrees with a couple of his friends and his dad to go along with him in the comments section on Facebook to make the whole experiment more believable.
How will his real life get entangled with his fake Facebook life? This is all discussed in the book.
The book is very simple to read and enjoyable until its middle. Where I started feeling that the writer is more into just writing for the sake of creating more pages. I really enjoyed all his reflections about Facebook and how it adds a new dimension to relationships. We have not met some people in our lives for years but somehow, we know their day-to-day life and life updates through Facebook. It does not really give a closure to relationships that simply no longer exists in real life.
I agreed with most of his thoughts on the extent of how much people are submerged into social media and willing to believe things that are not real.
The book raises many questions about our relationship with social media and its effect on our lives. The responses and reactions the writer received from his Facebook friends were astonishing sometimes. Which leads us to the big question, how much are we willing to believe social media?
December 23, 2013
Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com...
Dave Cicirelli was on Facebook, as our million of other people. He got tired of seeing two things - how wonderful other people's lives sounded or how much minutia people chose to share. On almost a whim, he decided to start an experiment - creating a fictitious life for himself - and see what happened. What happened and where it led went beyond what he could ever have imagined.
The basis of his fictitious life begins as he announces that he is quitting his job and walking cross country. He is tech savvy and able to create pictures and tell stories about where he is walking. Soon, it gets more complicated than he imagined.
Soon, he has two lives - the fictitious one and the real one. Soon after, his "real" life becomes about giving validity to the fictitious one. Who knows it's a hoax? Who can, therefore, provide comments to add validity? Where can't he go and who can't he see to avoid discovery? How much of his real life is spending keeping up this fiction?
In addition, his fictitious life begins to have a very real effect on people. He gets messages of admiration for having the courage to take off in that manner. He gets messages of criticisms from those who wonder how he can be so irresponsible to just walk away.
He keeps this up for six month. On April's Fools Day, he announces that it was all experiment. Again, he gets messages of both admiration and criticism, and he finds himself a changed person.
This book is a fascinating look at the far-reaching impact of social media. How much of what you read is real? How much do you believe? Do any of us truly understand how far our own impact reaches when we put something on a social media site? Do any of us know how we sound or come across and how different that is from our original intent? All questions all of us would do well to think about.
I do know that for me, my blog would not exist without the existence of cyberspace and social media. I write for me, but I love when I know that what I write reaches people. Just so you know, my reviews are my honest opinion, and not a hoax.
Dave Cicirelli was on Facebook, as our million of other people. He got tired of seeing two things - how wonderful other people's lives sounded or how much minutia people chose to share. On almost a whim, he decided to start an experiment - creating a fictitious life for himself - and see what happened. What happened and where it led went beyond what he could ever have imagined.
The basis of his fictitious life begins as he announces that he is quitting his job and walking cross country. He is tech savvy and able to create pictures and tell stories about where he is walking. Soon, it gets more complicated than he imagined.
Soon, he has two lives - the fictitious one and the real one. Soon after, his "real" life becomes about giving validity to the fictitious one. Who knows it's a hoax? Who can, therefore, provide comments to add validity? Where can't he go and who can't he see to avoid discovery? How much of his real life is spending keeping up this fiction?
In addition, his fictitious life begins to have a very real effect on people. He gets messages of admiration for having the courage to take off in that manner. He gets messages of criticisms from those who wonder how he can be so irresponsible to just walk away.
He keeps this up for six month. On April's Fools Day, he announces that it was all experiment. Again, he gets messages of both admiration and criticism, and he finds himself a changed person.
This book is a fascinating look at the far-reaching impact of social media. How much of what you read is real? How much do you believe? Do any of us truly understand how far our own impact reaches when we put something on a social media site? Do any of us know how we sound or come across and how different that is from our original intent? All questions all of us would do well to think about.
I do know that for me, my blog would not exist without the existence of cyberspace and social media. I write for me, but I love when I know that what I write reaches people. Just so you know, my reviews are my honest opinion, and not a hoax.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews