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Lurking: How a Person Became a User
A concise but wide-ranging personal history of the internet from—for the first time—the point of view of the user
In a shockingly short amount of time, the internet has bound people around the world together and torn us apart and changed not just the way we communicate but who we are and who we can be. It has created a new, unprecedented cultural space that we are all a part of—even if we don’t participate, that is how we participate—but by which we’re continually surprised, betrayed, enriched, befuddled. We have churned through platforms and technologies and in turn been churned by them. And yet, the internet is us and always has been.
In Lurking, Joanne McNeil digs deep and identifies the primary (if sometimes contradictory) concerns of people online: searching, safety, privacy, identity, community, anonymity, and visibility. She charts what it is that brought people online and what keeps us here even as the social equations of digital life—what we’re made to trade, knowingly or otherwise, for the benefits of the internet—have shifted radically beneath us. It is a story we are accustomed to hearing as tales of entrepreneurs and visionaries and dynamic and powerful corporations, but there is a more profound, intimate story that hasn’t yet been told.
Long one of the most incisive, ferociously intelligent, and widely respected cultural critics online, McNeil here establishes a singular vision of who we are now, tells the stories of how we became us, and helps us start to figure out what we do now.
In a shockingly short amount of time, the internet has bound people around the world together and torn us apart and changed not just the way we communicate but who we are and who we can be. It has created a new, unprecedented cultural space that we are all a part of—even if we don’t participate, that is how we participate—but by which we’re continually surprised, betrayed, enriched, befuddled. We have churned through platforms and technologies and in turn been churned by them. And yet, the internet is us and always has been.
In Lurking, Joanne McNeil digs deep and identifies the primary (if sometimes contradictory) concerns of people online: searching, safety, privacy, identity, community, anonymity, and visibility. She charts what it is that brought people online and what keeps us here even as the social equations of digital life—what we’re made to trade, knowingly or otherwise, for the benefits of the internet—have shifted radically beneath us. It is a story we are accustomed to hearing as tales of entrepreneurs and visionaries and dynamic and powerful corporations, but there is a more profound, intimate story that hasn’t yet been told.
Long one of the most incisive, ferociously intelligent, and widely respected cultural critics online, McNeil here establishes a singular vision of who we are now, tells the stories of how we became us, and helps us start to figure out what we do now.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2020
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4,681 people want to read
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June 17, 2022
I don’t want to give the impression that I got nothing out of this book at all. There were many things I got out of this book, but I’ve never been much of a lurker on the internet. I never had accounts with many of the platforms discussed here.
This book, if I was to be unkind, is a kind of ‘websites I’ve known and loved� book. Actually, it is better than that, because the writer does explain some of the sociological problems associated with platforms like Facebook, Wikipedia, Reddit and so on. I think I wanted more from this book. The vast majority of it is the writer’s own experience, and I’m not saying that isn’t worthwhile � it would normally be my preference, I think � but the times when it rose above this, and provided background on internet battles where people of colour, trans women, non-white feminists or anyone not pale, male and stale stood up against the existing order were easily the most interesting parts of this book.
As an introvert who becomes something of an extrovert online, I find the things that encourage people to ‘lurk� fascinating. I’ve friends who do exactly that, they watch threads and discussions and never get involved. I tend to find platforms online, like this one, where I can engage with people and ideas. That people don’t seems remarkable to me.
All of which means that I’m not sure if this book was as successful as I thought it was going to be. I think it is too much of a ‘my life on the internet� and not enough about how and why the internet is the way it is � which I do think is a major theme of this book. It isn’t badly written, and nostalgia isn’t a terrible thing � but I’m not sure that really was what the author was aiming for.
This book, if I was to be unkind, is a kind of ‘websites I’ve known and loved� book. Actually, it is better than that, because the writer does explain some of the sociological problems associated with platforms like Facebook, Wikipedia, Reddit and so on. I think I wanted more from this book. The vast majority of it is the writer’s own experience, and I’m not saying that isn’t worthwhile � it would normally be my preference, I think � but the times when it rose above this, and provided background on internet battles where people of colour, trans women, non-white feminists or anyone not pale, male and stale stood up against the existing order were easily the most interesting parts of this book.
As an introvert who becomes something of an extrovert online, I find the things that encourage people to ‘lurk� fascinating. I’ve friends who do exactly that, they watch threads and discussions and never get involved. I tend to find platforms online, like this one, where I can engage with people and ideas. That people don’t seems remarkable to me.
All of which means that I’m not sure if this book was as successful as I thought it was going to be. I think it is too much of a ‘my life on the internet� and not enough about how and why the internet is the way it is � which I do think is a major theme of this book. It isn’t badly written, and nostalgia isn’t a terrible thing � but I’m not sure that really was what the author was aiming for.
May 24, 2020
In Lurking: How a Person Became a User, Joanne McNeil takes on the development of online internet communities. She discusses the evolution of Google and of social networks, beginning with the history of one of the earliest, Friendster, then to Myspace and Facebook, up to and including the optimistic platforms that believe they can serve as less commercial/problematic replacements to the monster that Facebook has become.
Throughout, the author’s tone oscillates between wonder and fear. These online spaces, these communities that we build for ourselves, have an incredible ability to bring people together in a way that simply can't be done offline. We can easily find people who like what we like, we can share knowledge, and bond with people on the other side of the Earth. The internet has simplified and enriched our lives in truly remarkable ways.
But the whole time she is acknowledging these pluses, McNeil is very aware and makes sure that we as readers are very aware of the negative side to the coin; that same ability to connect people has the ability to calcify incredibly toxic opinions and frames of mind. She also makes a point to highlight what we trade to acquire those connections. A large portion of the book is dedicated to discussing how much of our own privacy, and even our person-hood we have to sacrifice and how much abuse we have to be willing to face in order to have the online presences that now seem be necessities rather than luxuries. In short, online social networks, in a much more magnified way than in person, give us a terrible, yet remarkable ability to be seen. It's one of several reasons why I refer to the internet as "the best, worst thing."
This book is an intriguing look at the settlement of the virtual wild west, from its early beginnings up to the current lay of the land. Anyone who regularly participates in online communities (that is to say, most of us) should consider picking this book up as it contains many powerful observations that will likely make you see your own relationship with the internet a little differently. The book is a little more anecdotal than ideal in such a study, but is certainly worth your time.
Throughout, the author’s tone oscillates between wonder and fear. These online spaces, these communities that we build for ourselves, have an incredible ability to bring people together in a way that simply can't be done offline. We can easily find people who like what we like, we can share knowledge, and bond with people on the other side of the Earth. The internet has simplified and enriched our lives in truly remarkable ways.
But the whole time she is acknowledging these pluses, McNeil is very aware and makes sure that we as readers are very aware of the negative side to the coin; that same ability to connect people has the ability to calcify incredibly toxic opinions and frames of mind. She also makes a point to highlight what we trade to acquire those connections. A large portion of the book is dedicated to discussing how much of our own privacy, and even our person-hood we have to sacrifice and how much abuse we have to be willing to face in order to have the online presences that now seem be necessities rather than luxuries. In short, online social networks, in a much more magnified way than in person, give us a terrible, yet remarkable ability to be seen. It's one of several reasons why I refer to the internet as "the best, worst thing."
This book is an intriguing look at the settlement of the virtual wild west, from its early beginnings up to the current lay of the land. Anyone who regularly participates in online communities (that is to say, most of us) should consider picking this book up as it contains many powerful observations that will likely make you see your own relationship with the internet a little differently. The book is a little more anecdotal than ideal in such a study, but is certainly worth your time.
January 5, 2020
(3.5) An entertaining, accessible history of the internet, detailing how we all became 'users' and how the early (anonymous, utopian) Web gave way to... whatever it is we have now. It's a lively, personal narrative, sometimes too personal to truly do justice to the user-centred idea, with some political proselytising that doesn't really fit the concept. Though I did love McNeil's openness about how much she hates Facebook, so I can't be too mad. Minor quibbles aside, I found this really readable and enjoyably nostalgic, with some acute insights. (The observation that 'Twitter now feels like endless punditry from low-information voters' pretty much encapsulates why I want to stop using it.)
I received an advance review copy of Lurking from the publisher through .
I received an advance review copy of Lurking from the publisher through .
February 22, 2020
I absolutely loved this book of social criticism and history of social media online over the past few decades. Beginning with Usenet and BBS, traveling through AOL and Yahoo groups, Friendster MySpace, blogging, Facebook, Reddit, and more, the author analyzes the changing nature of what it means to be a person online in social spaces. Media these days is full of pearl-clutchers with their hair on fire about how awful, addicting, and abusive various online spaces are, but McNeil reels it back in and contextualizes various travesties-of-the-day. My experience online (now and in the past) makes more sense to me after having read this book.
Highly recommended, especially if you've been online long enough to see prior popular e-spaces go fallow, and particularly if you remember accessing the internet with a dial-up modem on a family computer.
I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Highly recommended, especially if you've been online long enough to see prior popular e-spaces go fallow, and particularly if you remember accessing the internet with a dial-up modem on a family computer.
I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 16, 2020
This was a well-written book and I enjoyed reading it (especially the more memoir-ey bits) but I struggled to understand what it was about.
April 21, 2021
Joanne McNeil doesn't know how to feel about the internet, and that’s okay. Lurking is a history of the best and worst of the social web, from the newsgroups of the 1980s to the 21st century mega-platforms we know so well. The book reads like the information superhighway it describes: she cruises past Usenet, AOL, Friendster, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Wikipedia to our present day. Along the way, there is talk of profiles and profits, searching and sharing, community and copyrights, permanence and peer production.
Along with this birds' eye view of tech history � which provides much-needed context for Zoomers like me � McNeil recounts her own experiences online, from being a teenage girl using pseudonyms to talk sex on message boards to getting harassed as an adult via Instagram DM. At times, she zooms out of the ground-level user experience to take a swing at the tech giants for turning people into users: commodifying our complex identities into discrete, sellable data points. While these asides occasionally feel disconnected from the book's central narrative, they mirror my own mixed feelings about creating community under Zuckerberg's calculating eye.
Like Gretchen McCulloch in her book , McNeil successfully makes the obvious intriguing, the implicit explicit, and reframes the internet as a culture worth serious study like any other. Like Sarah Frier in (read my review ), McNeil is deft at tracing and comparing the design of a social platform to its human/user impact � such as how Friendster profiles facilitated self-obsessed curation, or how Wikipedia's page structure seeded a maintenance-oriented culture. And like any good sociologist, McNeil ends with a dream for the internet as social infrastructure: a library, a public park, a commons.
Some readers might feel disoriented by Lurking's frequent tonal shifts: some passages read nostalgically, others professorially, and yet others steeped in exasperation. But I found McNeil's ambivalence and cautious hope refreshing. Though I might be too young to remember an internet before the gold rush, that was truly private or profit-free, Lurking most closely parallels my own feelings about the web today � the source of some of my best friends and greatest fears, of constant distractions and major epiphanies � just a place full of people, searching, still.
reviewed for reboot, a publication highlighting the best books on tech/society. come to our on 4/27!
Along with this birds' eye view of tech history � which provides much-needed context for Zoomers like me � McNeil recounts her own experiences online, from being a teenage girl using pseudonyms to talk sex on message boards to getting harassed as an adult via Instagram DM. At times, she zooms out of the ground-level user experience to take a swing at the tech giants for turning people into users: commodifying our complex identities into discrete, sellable data points. While these asides occasionally feel disconnected from the book's central narrative, they mirror my own mixed feelings about creating community under Zuckerberg's calculating eye.
Like Gretchen McCulloch in her book , McNeil successfully makes the obvious intriguing, the implicit explicit, and reframes the internet as a culture worth serious study like any other. Like Sarah Frier in (read my review ), McNeil is deft at tracing and comparing the design of a social platform to its human/user impact � such as how Friendster profiles facilitated self-obsessed curation, or how Wikipedia's page structure seeded a maintenance-oriented culture. And like any good sociologist, McNeil ends with a dream for the internet as social infrastructure: a library, a public park, a commons.
Some readers might feel disoriented by Lurking's frequent tonal shifts: some passages read nostalgically, others professorially, and yet others steeped in exasperation. But I found McNeil's ambivalence and cautious hope refreshing. Though I might be too young to remember an internet before the gold rush, that was truly private or profit-free, Lurking most closely parallels my own feelings about the web today � the source of some of my best friends and greatest fears, of constant distractions and major epiphanies � just a place full of people, searching, still.
reviewed for reboot, a publication highlighting the best books on tech/society. come to our on 4/27!
August 8, 2020
Approximately 4.57 billion people across the globe use internet (or used by internet?). That number itself should indicate the impact internet is capable of making on our society. We live in a world where huge corporations have ambition of mirroring our real world and in the attempt are blurring the line between real world and the virtual.
This book takes us through the evolution of internet culture with the help of personal memoirs of the author, beginning as early as AOL, Echo and Myspace. Of the many endowments of internet, the most valuable one is the capability to search anything under the sun. Such vast access to knowledge at fingertip would not have been accomplished without internet. The users also got a channel for the expression of self, independent of the existence in the real life and in some cases empowering the real self. It also helped people form connections which would have been unimaginable with the restraints of the physical world. Nevertheless, the reality of internet is not as rosy as it would seem in theory.
“internet I felt momentarily nostalgic for is an internet that never actually existed. There was never a chat room where I could have talked freely with people the age of my parents, who also held vastly different views on politics and religion. That’s how the internet was first sold to me, but it was never how I used it.�
The dark underbelly of human society replicated itself in the world of internet, in form of bullying, stalking, trolling, hate speech, fraud, manipulation, identity theft and whatnot, thriving on the vastly untethered access provided by internet. Apart from the more serious drawbacks, internet has slowly degraded the formality of communication as well. Where it would take hours for people to write a letter, the typical exchanges now are mindlessly typed out at a speed at which we think. All the while we continue to scroll, keep refreshing pages, surf from one profile to other, just obliviously lurking.
““Some people just like clickin� around.� That’s the modus operandi of internet users as concisely as it has ever been described.�
Then came Smartphones, which shot up the trajectory of internet usage by leaps and bounds. The entire world became accessible and immediate on the go, but the actual world surrounding us turned less urgent and less present. The term “BRB� is no longer relevant, we never leave, we now live on internet. This also increased the quantity of personal information people started making available on internet through writings, pictures and videos. There is a constant need to create the moments of significance, just to share on the internet. Another transformation came with newer platforms like twitter and Instagram where connections changed from friends to followers. It was no longer about sharing content with your close connection, family and friends, but to get more followers, views and likes.
“Creating a blog used to be unique enough to merit attention, but the ratio of influencers to influenced is tilting toward a world in which every user is broadcasting for no one.�
It is easy to blame users for the vices of internet however it is the internet companies benefitting from it. It is people who bully, clash and spread hatred on internet but if wide use is company’s goal, harassment is not necessarily in opposition to that goal. The saddening part of the story is that those holding the mantle of this new mirrored world fail to accept the responsibility and accountability that comes with it.
Author has a strong hatred for Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, which she has not made any attempt to hide. She calls Facebook’s claims of community a bluff and argues that it is very opposite of community. All the various lapses of Facebook including privacy issues, Cambridge Analytica, targeted advertisements have been listed to support her argument.
“In this book I have tried to maintain a consistent tone of criticism that is not openly combative, less “this is wrong� than “isn’t it interesting how wrong this is,� but I have found it next to impossible to maintain this distance when it comes to the topic of Facebook. I hate it. The company is one of the biggest mistakes in modern history, a digital cesspool that, while calamitous when it fails, is at its most dangerous when it works as intended. Facebook is an ant farm of humanity. It’s so unsubtle in its horribleness that I think of it in terms of unsubtle Banksy-like metaphors: ANT FARM OF HUMANITY!�
The decentralized and libertarian model of Wikipedia stands out, where content is collectively vetted and not monetized. A contributing factor to the success of Wikipedia is the role of lurker who just access information and do not create content since it will be unimaginable to sustain already fragile Wikipedia ecosystem if every single user on the internet took an active role.
This book ventured out on a very interesting subject, but author failed to explore its potential well. Author has called out the shortcomings of internet in a manner which seems driven by irrational hatred. For someone who has claimed to done years of research on the subject ought to have presented a solution for the problems highlighted. The only solution proposed, which “maybe� will work is an absolute ban on targeted advertisement. For such a rich topic, this book is neither content rich nor written in a well-structured manner. I was tempted to give up if this book was not such a short-read. I will continue to look for a better book on the internet culture.
This book takes us through the evolution of internet culture with the help of personal memoirs of the author, beginning as early as AOL, Echo and Myspace. Of the many endowments of internet, the most valuable one is the capability to search anything under the sun. Such vast access to knowledge at fingertip would not have been accomplished without internet. The users also got a channel for the expression of self, independent of the existence in the real life and in some cases empowering the real self. It also helped people form connections which would have been unimaginable with the restraints of the physical world. Nevertheless, the reality of internet is not as rosy as it would seem in theory.
“internet I felt momentarily nostalgic for is an internet that never actually existed. There was never a chat room where I could have talked freely with people the age of my parents, who also held vastly different views on politics and religion. That’s how the internet was first sold to me, but it was never how I used it.�
The dark underbelly of human society replicated itself in the world of internet, in form of bullying, stalking, trolling, hate speech, fraud, manipulation, identity theft and whatnot, thriving on the vastly untethered access provided by internet. Apart from the more serious drawbacks, internet has slowly degraded the formality of communication as well. Where it would take hours for people to write a letter, the typical exchanges now are mindlessly typed out at a speed at which we think. All the while we continue to scroll, keep refreshing pages, surf from one profile to other, just obliviously lurking.
““Some people just like clickin� around.� That’s the modus operandi of internet users as concisely as it has ever been described.�
Then came Smartphones, which shot up the trajectory of internet usage by leaps and bounds. The entire world became accessible and immediate on the go, but the actual world surrounding us turned less urgent and less present. The term “BRB� is no longer relevant, we never leave, we now live on internet. This also increased the quantity of personal information people started making available on internet through writings, pictures and videos. There is a constant need to create the moments of significance, just to share on the internet. Another transformation came with newer platforms like twitter and Instagram where connections changed from friends to followers. It was no longer about sharing content with your close connection, family and friends, but to get more followers, views and likes.
“Creating a blog used to be unique enough to merit attention, but the ratio of influencers to influenced is tilting toward a world in which every user is broadcasting for no one.�
It is easy to blame users for the vices of internet however it is the internet companies benefitting from it. It is people who bully, clash and spread hatred on internet but if wide use is company’s goal, harassment is not necessarily in opposition to that goal. The saddening part of the story is that those holding the mantle of this new mirrored world fail to accept the responsibility and accountability that comes with it.
Author has a strong hatred for Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, which she has not made any attempt to hide. She calls Facebook’s claims of community a bluff and argues that it is very opposite of community. All the various lapses of Facebook including privacy issues, Cambridge Analytica, targeted advertisements have been listed to support her argument.
“In this book I have tried to maintain a consistent tone of criticism that is not openly combative, less “this is wrong� than “isn’t it interesting how wrong this is,� but I have found it next to impossible to maintain this distance when it comes to the topic of Facebook. I hate it. The company is one of the biggest mistakes in modern history, a digital cesspool that, while calamitous when it fails, is at its most dangerous when it works as intended. Facebook is an ant farm of humanity. It’s so unsubtle in its horribleness that I think of it in terms of unsubtle Banksy-like metaphors: ANT FARM OF HUMANITY!�
The decentralized and libertarian model of Wikipedia stands out, where content is collectively vetted and not monetized. A contributing factor to the success of Wikipedia is the role of lurker who just access information and do not create content since it will be unimaginable to sustain already fragile Wikipedia ecosystem if every single user on the internet took an active role.
This book ventured out on a very interesting subject, but author failed to explore its potential well. Author has called out the shortcomings of internet in a manner which seems driven by irrational hatred. For someone who has claimed to done years of research on the subject ought to have presented a solution for the problems highlighted. The only solution proposed, which “maybe� will work is an absolute ban on targeted advertisement. For such a rich topic, this book is neither content rich nor written in a well-structured manner. I was tempted to give up if this book was not such a short-read. I will continue to look for a better book on the internet culture.
October 12, 2020
It is hard to rate this book without bias...�.especially generational bias.
This book tells the authors own experiences with the internet as she grew up. Like me, she grew up as the internet grew up. It wasn't always Facebook, Google and an attention obsessed president dominating Twitter. It used to be a place for nerds to go and interact with like minds WITHOUT interacting with the older generation. This is almost impossible to understand for so many people. There was once a place for young people to go and interact with other young people without judgement (mostly), without being preached at, profited by, influenced by etc. It was underground. It was un-corporate. You could say the wrong things, learn from that and move on. It was not permanent. The old internet has stories of people finding themselves, growing, learning, interacting with opposing views in a healthy way. It was Atlantis and it didn't last very long.
For anyone who had the chance to grow up with the old internet - read this book. It is nostalgic. I don't think anyone over 40 will relate to this even remotely. The entire reason we hid on the internet was to avoid their scrutiny. In that same vein - people younger than 20 will not relate to this either. Of course, we now have the internet that we have (aka the surveillance capitalist machine) because the internet is regulated by people who don't understand what the internet should be.....they just want money. It doesn't need to be turning human behavior into data for financial gain.........it could just be..........human. It once was.
I had to cap the rating of this book to 3 stars because I really believe that most readers wouldn't get it. You have to be a very specific age to enjoy this book.
This book tells the authors own experiences with the internet as she grew up. Like me, she grew up as the internet grew up. It wasn't always Facebook, Google and an attention obsessed president dominating Twitter. It used to be a place for nerds to go and interact with like minds WITHOUT interacting with the older generation. This is almost impossible to understand for so many people. There was once a place for young people to go and interact with other young people without judgement (mostly), without being preached at, profited by, influenced by etc. It was underground. It was un-corporate. You could say the wrong things, learn from that and move on. It was not permanent. The old internet has stories of people finding themselves, growing, learning, interacting with opposing views in a healthy way. It was Atlantis and it didn't last very long.
For anyone who had the chance to grow up with the old internet - read this book. It is nostalgic. I don't think anyone over 40 will relate to this even remotely. The entire reason we hid on the internet was to avoid their scrutiny. In that same vein - people younger than 20 will not relate to this either. Of course, we now have the internet that we have (aka the surveillance capitalist machine) because the internet is regulated by people who don't understand what the internet should be.....they just want money. It doesn't need to be turning human behavior into data for financial gain.........it could just be..........human. It once was.
I had to cap the rating of this book to 3 stars because I really believe that most readers wouldn't get it. You have to be a very specific age to enjoy this book.
March 14, 2020
Less academic, more anecdotal, an originally constructed, intuitively narrated essay and memoir, since the topics discussed and criticism exhorted are overlapped with “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism�, so I cannot help comparing two books, to praise the latter to be superior.
Perhaps I’ve never been a “dumb fuck� enough to be enmeshed by “Ant Farm of Humanity�. Users/readers, with similar experience, may stop short at only feeling a nostalgia endearing or a reality infuriating, not necessarily enlightened or change the behavior, due to some analysis in oblique style, as well as a coverage broad with some only surface skimmed.
With a kindred spirit, I, a user (lurking occasionally), consider the book a good reference on internet history. Her hope that internet should be analogous to library, can never be realized. So while “a hell� is fun and persists, wish more users can choose to mitigate the hell effect.
Perhaps I’ve never been a “dumb fuck� enough to be enmeshed by “Ant Farm of Humanity�. Users/readers, with similar experience, may stop short at only feeling a nostalgia endearing or a reality infuriating, not necessarily enlightened or change the behavior, due to some analysis in oblique style, as well as a coverage broad with some only surface skimmed.
With a kindred spirit, I, a user (lurking occasionally), consider the book a good reference on internet history. Her hope that internet should be analogous to library, can never be realized. So while “a hell� is fun and persists, wish more users can choose to mitigate the hell effect.
October 7, 2019
I got an ARC of this book from Joanne and was happy to get it. I was also briefly interviewed for part of it. This is a story about how the old web, where we were just learning how to interact with one another, became the new web where everyone was trying to “sell our eyeballs� to people and just how much that changed the experience of interacting there. Joanne spent a lot of time online and talks about what she found there, both in the early web being a person interacting on Echo or Friendster, and today where she uses Twitter a little and basically ignores Facebook.
It’s really nice to read an account of the early web which isn’t just about “The men who built it.� There is some of that in this book, but it’s useful. What’s more useful is how Joanne talks about the people she interacted with there, the friendships she made, the “there� that was there as a result of the way people had genuine interactions with one another, in a place that many people didn’t even see as real. She has a great way of evoking sense-memories for things many of us have only experienced through typing and reading. And for someone who spent a lot of time in some of those same places (and also in other ones) there’s a very real feeling about that, it feels like a very authentic reflection of how it felt to be there.
It’s really nice to read an account of the early web which isn’t just about “The men who built it.� There is some of that in this book, but it’s useful. What’s more useful is how Joanne talks about the people she interacted with there, the friendships she made, the “there� that was there as a result of the way people had genuine interactions with one another, in a place that many people didn’t even see as real. She has a great way of evoking sense-memories for things many of us have only experienced through typing and reading. And for someone who spent a lot of time in some of those same places (and also in other ones) there’s a very real feeling about that, it feels like a very authentic reflection of how it felt to be there.
Read
January 30, 2020Still thinking about the chapters on the early internet. One of my favorite parts of Lurking is that it opened up so many other articles and books that I've added to my list.
June 28, 2021
Maybe not the best history of how the internet evolved, really more her personal experiences with using it. That nostalgic style will definitely appeal to people who had similar experiences. It does make it a little hard to follow for people like me who didn't really use computers much before the late 2000's. I never felt totally lost but did wish she'd explain some of her inside jokes at times.
It's also pretty opinionated, feeling like a long blog about why some band she listens to is cooler than another one or why Coke is better than Pepsi (can't remember if she actually said this specifically or if it's just my go-to example for pointless conversations). Like I said, it's a writing style that's kind of fun and cute for a certain audience, rather than a scholarly history lesson that that same audience would get bored with. It still is smart, covering a lot of subjects and doing a pretty good job with them. It just gets a bit carried away with the fluff.
Some of her views on social justice feel like they're just pandering to the LGBTQ crowd too. She calls it "disgusting" to use the phrase "biological female" when talking about someone born with female genitalia (a quick google search shows that only about 1 in 1,000 births have ambiguous genitalia by the way), condemns Wikipedia for mentioning that Chelsea Manning was named Bradley at the time of her arrest (yeah, how could anyone find that relevant?) and complains quite a few times about the majority of politicians and CEOs being cis-gendered (aren't 95% of people cis-gendered?). I just get really annoyed with this stuff. It's like everyone is so afraid of being labeled a bigot that you can't challenge even the dumbest ideas in the world if they're said by anyone trans or gender queer. If you want to recommend a way of speaking that you personally are more comfortable with then that's one thing but to call it "disgusting" when everyone doesn't dedicate every second of their lives to learning how to talk to you, that is really pushing it. I'm someone that has spent a lot of time listening to these arguments already and even I have trouble keeping up with their demands (the ones I agree with). Do you really expect the average person to read a huge stack of books on something like this? And would it necessarily be offensive if they disagreed with parts of those books? I really wish I'd see more nuanced discussions on stuff like this. Of course these people should be treated with respect but, just like all other people, they're not right about everything. I could even get into the animal testing, pollution and resource waste of sex-change operations, artificial hormones and even the negative effects of the fashion choices of drag queen culture. Sorry but there are things about it that seem fair to criticize even if you're not actually against them.
That's getting a little off topic. It does bring up another relevant point though. This book kind of misses the bigger picture regarding the overall sustainability of our dependence on technology. Most of the criticisms are about fairness, privacy, harassment, etc. rather than the environmental damage of data storage infrastructure, rare earth metals in smart phones, planned obsolescence making everyone constantly update their gadgets, and therefore constantly throw shit away. This alone would usually make me give a book a lower rating on here. I think I'm okay ignoring that a little more than usual just because the main topic is how the evolution of the internet is affecting the way we live. It would have been better if she said a little more about this though.
The internet is definitely getting creepy these days. When I first started using it I liked how easy it was to find information with google searches, share ideas on Facebook, learn about things I'd have never even heard of if school and mainstream news were my only sources. I really think I would be a complete idiot without it. That makes me wish I could believe all this will transition to some totally green and sustainable system where everyone is enlightened and happy. I can't though. Every time I come on here I feel like I'm being spied on, manipulated, set up for theft or blackmail. Every time I play some stupid game while listening to the news I feel like it's just a scam to keep me on as long as possible. Rather than winning when you play well, losing when you don't, it's winning if your behavior suggests that would make you keep playing, losing when your behavior suggests that will. Sometimes I seriously wonder if I'm being experimented on for behavior control data or something. Even porn sites are being overrun by these weird incest fantasies about step-siblings and shit (so I've heard!). Combine that with the fact that more and more of our devices are recording us pretty much 24/7 and it makes me wonder if that's why politicians are so evil. It's not greed and corruption but fear of the video of them masturbating to "your daughter swallows your load" being released that makes them do the bidding of big corporations. Sounds like a ridiculous conspiracy theory that'd make a good episode of South Park or something but I really do wonder sometimes. Shit's just gotten really bizarre and way too many people are agreeing on way too stupid of ideas for anything to make sense. This book does bring up stuff like this, showing how we are being manipulated more and more. She's a lot more optimistic about the potential of these technologies than I am though. There are enough good criticisms in here to make it worth reading. It just doesn't go far enough in my opinion.
It's also pretty opinionated, feeling like a long blog about why some band she listens to is cooler than another one or why Coke is better than Pepsi (can't remember if she actually said this specifically or if it's just my go-to example for pointless conversations). Like I said, it's a writing style that's kind of fun and cute for a certain audience, rather than a scholarly history lesson that that same audience would get bored with. It still is smart, covering a lot of subjects and doing a pretty good job with them. It just gets a bit carried away with the fluff.
Some of her views on social justice feel like they're just pandering to the LGBTQ crowd too. She calls it "disgusting" to use the phrase "biological female" when talking about someone born with female genitalia (a quick google search shows that only about 1 in 1,000 births have ambiguous genitalia by the way), condemns Wikipedia for mentioning that Chelsea Manning was named Bradley at the time of her arrest (yeah, how could anyone find that relevant?) and complains quite a few times about the majority of politicians and CEOs being cis-gendered (aren't 95% of people cis-gendered?). I just get really annoyed with this stuff. It's like everyone is so afraid of being labeled a bigot that you can't challenge even the dumbest ideas in the world if they're said by anyone trans or gender queer. If you want to recommend a way of speaking that you personally are more comfortable with then that's one thing but to call it "disgusting" when everyone doesn't dedicate every second of their lives to learning how to talk to you, that is really pushing it. I'm someone that has spent a lot of time listening to these arguments already and even I have trouble keeping up with their demands (the ones I agree with). Do you really expect the average person to read a huge stack of books on something like this? And would it necessarily be offensive if they disagreed with parts of those books? I really wish I'd see more nuanced discussions on stuff like this. Of course these people should be treated with respect but, just like all other people, they're not right about everything. I could even get into the animal testing, pollution and resource waste of sex-change operations, artificial hormones and even the negative effects of the fashion choices of drag queen culture. Sorry but there are things about it that seem fair to criticize even if you're not actually against them.
That's getting a little off topic. It does bring up another relevant point though. This book kind of misses the bigger picture regarding the overall sustainability of our dependence on technology. Most of the criticisms are about fairness, privacy, harassment, etc. rather than the environmental damage of data storage infrastructure, rare earth metals in smart phones, planned obsolescence making everyone constantly update their gadgets, and therefore constantly throw shit away. This alone would usually make me give a book a lower rating on here. I think I'm okay ignoring that a little more than usual just because the main topic is how the evolution of the internet is affecting the way we live. It would have been better if she said a little more about this though.
The internet is definitely getting creepy these days. When I first started using it I liked how easy it was to find information with google searches, share ideas on Facebook, learn about things I'd have never even heard of if school and mainstream news were my only sources. I really think I would be a complete idiot without it. That makes me wish I could believe all this will transition to some totally green and sustainable system where everyone is enlightened and happy. I can't though. Every time I come on here I feel like I'm being spied on, manipulated, set up for theft or blackmail. Every time I play some stupid game while listening to the news I feel like it's just a scam to keep me on as long as possible. Rather than winning when you play well, losing when you don't, it's winning if your behavior suggests that would make you keep playing, losing when your behavior suggests that will. Sometimes I seriously wonder if I'm being experimented on for behavior control data or something. Even porn sites are being overrun by these weird incest fantasies about step-siblings and shit (so I've heard!). Combine that with the fact that more and more of our devices are recording us pretty much 24/7 and it makes me wonder if that's why politicians are so evil. It's not greed and corruption but fear of the video of them masturbating to "your daughter swallows your load" being released that makes them do the bidding of big corporations. Sounds like a ridiculous conspiracy theory that'd make a good episode of South Park or something but I really do wonder sometimes. Shit's just gotten really bizarre and way too many people are agreeing on way too stupid of ideas for anything to make sense. This book does bring up stuff like this, showing how we are being manipulated more and more. She's a lot more optimistic about the potential of these technologies than I am though. There are enough good criticisms in here to make it worth reading. It just doesn't go far enough in my opinion.
January 15, 2022
3.5/5
because I read excerpts from this on the kindle app for research and never completed the whole thing, it's been marked as my "currently reading" for the better part of a year! now I'm finally done.
I enjoyed McNeil's "internet memoir" style of writing, but I felt at times that it lacked the poignancy to be truly moving and didn't delve deeply enough into history / political context to provide a true sense of clarity. a lot of things resonated with how I already felt, and I think it's an important body of work, but it left me itching for more substance.
the anonymity + sharing chapters were particularly good imo!
because I read excerpts from this on the kindle app for research and never completed the whole thing, it's been marked as my "currently reading" for the better part of a year! now I'm finally done.
I enjoyed McNeil's "internet memoir" style of writing, but I felt at times that it lacked the poignancy to be truly moving and didn't delve deeply enough into history / political context to provide a true sense of clarity. a lot of things resonated with how I already felt, and I think it's an important body of work, but it left me itching for more substance.
the anonymity + sharing chapters were particularly good imo!
January 17, 2021
“The internet is our conscription - a hell that is fun�
Enjoyed this personal & readable history of the internet. Some good nuggets of observation on user labor, intersections of internet usage/class/race, privacy, trolling & abuse. Salient points on what about absurdist shitposting and internet irony makes me feel so uncomfortable (they are virtually indiscernible from the real thing such that the different between being serious and joking no longer matters). Also enjoyed the analysis on the efficacy of trolling thru subverting the messages and modes of SJW targets - trolls understand the shortcomings/flaws of mvmts and arguments and exploit them. Was less of a fan of some of the sections on identarianism and cancel culture. Seems like the problem is capitalism...
Enjoyed this personal & readable history of the internet. Some good nuggets of observation on user labor, intersections of internet usage/class/race, privacy, trolling & abuse. Salient points on what about absurdist shitposting and internet irony makes me feel so uncomfortable (they are virtually indiscernible from the real thing such that the different between being serious and joking no longer matters). Also enjoyed the analysis on the efficacy of trolling thru subverting the messages and modes of SJW targets - trolls understand the shortcomings/flaws of mvmts and arguments and exploit them. Was less of a fan of some of the sections on identarianism and cancel culture. Seems like the problem is capitalism...
Read
July 2, 2022thinking about all the info that exists of me on the internet makes me feel nauseous. doesn't stop me from adding more to it tho.
I think some parts of this book work better in print than in the audio book. I wish they had changed it a little to make it more clear of changes in topic, situation, or speaker.
The thing I enjoyed the most was the optimistic view of how there could be a future of the internet that is better and how instead of feeling nostalgia for the internet in the "good old days" it would be better to just try and work on building a better one.
I think some parts of this book work better in print than in the audio book. I wish they had changed it a little to make it more clear of changes in topic, situation, or speaker.
The thing I enjoyed the most was the optimistic view of how there could be a future of the internet that is better and how instead of feeling nostalgia for the internet in the "good old days" it would be better to just try and work on building a better one.
March 13, 2022
This might be my favourite book about the internet I've read thus far. The initial chapters detailing the experience of the early internet were poetic, but not overly romanticized. A good companion to Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.
March 11, 2020
Un'interessante storia ragionata degli strumenti tecnologici che hanno cambiato la nostra vita negli ultimi 10-15 anni, che parte dalla preistoria di internet senza web e senza mobilità , passa per i primi ora rudimentali motori di ricerca, aggregatori sociali e forum (Altavista, Geocieties, Friendster) per vedere più da vicino i colossi con cui conviviamo oggi (Apple, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Organizzato per aree tematiche, in ciascuno l'autrice presenta una microstoria dello strumento in esame, e mostra implicitamente come gli strumenti tecnologici che usiamo sono, in effetti, solo strumenti, e come tali soggetti a cambiamenti, miglioramenti o anche estinzione.
September 29, 2020
Art and technology critic Joanne McNeil’s debut work “Lurking� is a trenchant, topical and thoughtful verdict on the incredibly complex but almost symbiotic relationship between digital platforms and users. The adjective lurking, usually employed in a pejorative sense, is however used in an ingenious and original fashion by Ms. McNeil to conflate innocuous prying with insidious stalking or even usurpation. Such a usurpation is more likely than not, of intangible attributes such as dignity, privacy and opinion.
While paeans extolling the achievements of tech entrepreneurs compete with excoriating indictment of cut-throat Information Technology mercenaries for shelf space and eyeballs, there has been a surprisingly, and unfortunately negligible coverage dealing with that one important element in the entire digital/online transactional or consumption value chain � the passive user. Before Ms. McNeil’s book, that is. She hold forth on the now well recognized and accepted principle prevalent in internet communities, going by the moniker of the one percent rule. An alpha numeric euphemism for lurking, this rule expounds that only one percent of users in any given digital community create new content. The remaining 99 percent hover about apparition like (my analogy), clicking links, absorbing posts, and unwittingly volunteering to be the fodder driving the digital economy. It is this 99% that is the focus of Ms. McNeil’s engaging book.
But who is a ‘lurker� in the esoteric and ephemeral online universe? A lurker is one whose involvement is not tantamount to participation. For example, I personally neither leave frequent comments on Facebook, not “like� posts. But I keep browsing through the variegated feeds appearing on my timeline. This makes me a ‘lurker.� However, an inveterate gravitation towards Twitter to express my angst, anxiety and anger in 280 furious characters makes me an active participant. Blending together a tapestry of personal experience with interesting interviews, Ms. McNeil takes her readers through the early social networks, like Friendster, MySpace, and local BBSes (bulletin board systems), explaining how users of devolved their online identities. An identity brought about via a technological visibility that serves as “another tool of privacy—a way of controlling one’s image as others regarded it.� Ms. McNeil also highlights the unquenchable thirst for profits that has made the Big Tech commodify the user. The experience of a user is a contrived, artificial one dictated by the unseen workings of complex algorithms and powered by the insatiable greed of advertisers. Stoking fuel to an already brightly burning fire is the invidious impact of cyber ostracism and bullying that leads to undesirable consequences such as segregation and totalitarian outlook. “Google and Facebook� have taken over functions of a state without administering the benefits or protections of a state.� But this is not a recent phenomenon. As Ms. McNeil informs her readers, the once ubiquitous AOL, during their pioneering days, once ended up hosting a page for the Texas Ku Klux Klan. The ridiculous and febrile argument for such an act being the right to assemble as accorded by the first amendment.
Ms. McNeil reserves her choicest polemic for Facebook though. “Facebook shoehorns values into patterns, removes nuance, and presents it as ruled by a ‘fundamental mathematical law.’� As Ms. McNeil illustrates once a raw and not so suave Mark Zuckerberg famously termed people voluntarily handing over data to him as “dumb fucks.� Even though this irreverent remark was made when the concept of a social network was just a seed germinating in the founder’s mind, this did not prevent the global populace from willingly handing over both themselves and their data to this glorified Ivy league drop out. According to Ms. McNeil Facebook is a corporation of “data gluttony and shamelessness,� as well as “endless ethical quagmires.� The monolithic and leviathan status of Facebook was given a slight tickle when Ello an online social networking service created by Paul Budnitz and Todd Berger in March 2014 made a hopeful appearance. Created as an ad-free alternative to existing social networks, it was noble in its intent, but miserably and woefully short in its execution. As Ms. McNeil informs the reader about her personal experience with Ello, an attitude of misogynistic pugilism and patriarchy put paid to the hopes of this upstart, to dismantle the behemoth. At the time of this review, Ello has morphed into a poor man’s Pinterest exhibiting art, photography, fashion and web culture.
We have traversed a long, exciting and conflicting journey in so far as the internet is concerned. Our experience has ranged from the vaudevillian to the vapid. However, as Ms. McNeil illustrates in a poignant manner, it was always not like this. “The internet was never peaceful, never fair, never good,� says Ms. McNeil, “but early on it was benign, and use of it was more imaginative, less common, and less obligatory.� ECHO, an acronym for “East Coast Hang Out� was one classic example of a benevolent version of the internet. The quintessential idea underlying the creation of echo was for users, most of whom lived in the New York City area, to meet one another. The group organised open-mic nights, softball games, and film screenings. An unseen celebrity was the young John F. Kennedy Jr. posting under an imaginatively titled username, “flash.� Echo founder Stacy Horn describes the platform’s essence in her invigorating and compelling memoir: “Everybody has a trace of an ache—some eternal disappointment, or longing, that is satisfied, at least for a minute each day, by a familiar group and by a place that will always be there.�
But as Ms. McNeil brilliantly demonstrates, internet in the current age only goes to exacerbate the ache that Ms. Horn refers to instead of acting as an ameliorating balm.
While paeans extolling the achievements of tech entrepreneurs compete with excoriating indictment of cut-throat Information Technology mercenaries for shelf space and eyeballs, there has been a surprisingly, and unfortunately negligible coverage dealing with that one important element in the entire digital/online transactional or consumption value chain � the passive user. Before Ms. McNeil’s book, that is. She hold forth on the now well recognized and accepted principle prevalent in internet communities, going by the moniker of the one percent rule. An alpha numeric euphemism for lurking, this rule expounds that only one percent of users in any given digital community create new content. The remaining 99 percent hover about apparition like (my analogy), clicking links, absorbing posts, and unwittingly volunteering to be the fodder driving the digital economy. It is this 99% that is the focus of Ms. McNeil’s engaging book.
But who is a ‘lurker� in the esoteric and ephemeral online universe? A lurker is one whose involvement is not tantamount to participation. For example, I personally neither leave frequent comments on Facebook, not “like� posts. But I keep browsing through the variegated feeds appearing on my timeline. This makes me a ‘lurker.� However, an inveterate gravitation towards Twitter to express my angst, anxiety and anger in 280 furious characters makes me an active participant. Blending together a tapestry of personal experience with interesting interviews, Ms. McNeil takes her readers through the early social networks, like Friendster, MySpace, and local BBSes (bulletin board systems), explaining how users of devolved their online identities. An identity brought about via a technological visibility that serves as “another tool of privacy—a way of controlling one’s image as others regarded it.� Ms. McNeil also highlights the unquenchable thirst for profits that has made the Big Tech commodify the user. The experience of a user is a contrived, artificial one dictated by the unseen workings of complex algorithms and powered by the insatiable greed of advertisers. Stoking fuel to an already brightly burning fire is the invidious impact of cyber ostracism and bullying that leads to undesirable consequences such as segregation and totalitarian outlook. “Google and Facebook� have taken over functions of a state without administering the benefits or protections of a state.� But this is not a recent phenomenon. As Ms. McNeil informs her readers, the once ubiquitous AOL, during their pioneering days, once ended up hosting a page for the Texas Ku Klux Klan. The ridiculous and febrile argument for such an act being the right to assemble as accorded by the first amendment.
Ms. McNeil reserves her choicest polemic for Facebook though. “Facebook shoehorns values into patterns, removes nuance, and presents it as ruled by a ‘fundamental mathematical law.’� As Ms. McNeil illustrates once a raw and not so suave Mark Zuckerberg famously termed people voluntarily handing over data to him as “dumb fucks.� Even though this irreverent remark was made when the concept of a social network was just a seed germinating in the founder’s mind, this did not prevent the global populace from willingly handing over both themselves and their data to this glorified Ivy league drop out. According to Ms. McNeil Facebook is a corporation of “data gluttony and shamelessness,� as well as “endless ethical quagmires.� The monolithic and leviathan status of Facebook was given a slight tickle when Ello an online social networking service created by Paul Budnitz and Todd Berger in March 2014 made a hopeful appearance. Created as an ad-free alternative to existing social networks, it was noble in its intent, but miserably and woefully short in its execution. As Ms. McNeil informs the reader about her personal experience with Ello, an attitude of misogynistic pugilism and patriarchy put paid to the hopes of this upstart, to dismantle the behemoth. At the time of this review, Ello has morphed into a poor man’s Pinterest exhibiting art, photography, fashion and web culture.
We have traversed a long, exciting and conflicting journey in so far as the internet is concerned. Our experience has ranged from the vaudevillian to the vapid. However, as Ms. McNeil illustrates in a poignant manner, it was always not like this. “The internet was never peaceful, never fair, never good,� says Ms. McNeil, “but early on it was benign, and use of it was more imaginative, less common, and less obligatory.� ECHO, an acronym for “East Coast Hang Out� was one classic example of a benevolent version of the internet. The quintessential idea underlying the creation of echo was for users, most of whom lived in the New York City area, to meet one another. The group organised open-mic nights, softball games, and film screenings. An unseen celebrity was the young John F. Kennedy Jr. posting under an imaginatively titled username, “flash.� Echo founder Stacy Horn describes the platform’s essence in her invigorating and compelling memoir: “Everybody has a trace of an ache—some eternal disappointment, or longing, that is satisfied, at least for a minute each day, by a familiar group and by a place that will always be there.�
But as Ms. McNeil brilliantly demonstrates, internet in the current age only goes to exacerbate the ache that Ms. Horn refers to instead of acting as an ameliorating balm.
Read
April 16, 2021Started out extremely strong but got so annoyed by the middle of the book I took forever to finish it & skimmed the ending. McNeil’s insightful but navelgazing approach was very fun in the beginning but when it leads into shallow analysis and things like having to read a quote from Sarah fucking Nyberg about how hard it is to be a woman online or whatever. Annoying. Worth a read!
May 19, 2020
This book gives a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of social interaction due to the internet. It invites you to take on a journey along with the writer's lens and experience since early internet or 'cyberspace.' McNeil breaks down the analysis to seven chapters, each of which represents different concepts such as Search, Visibility, Community, Sharing, and more.
As Neil Postman wrote in Technopoly, every new technology comes with burdens and blessings. Not either-or but this-and-that. Technology makes everything easier for us, especially in this pandemic, but it has changed how we interact with each other. This book explains the distinction between a 'person' and 'user', and what it means to our community in both good and bad light.
I think the changing nature of our social interaction is attributed as well by the online disinhibition effect, describing the lowering of psychological restraints, which often serve to regulate behaviors in the online social environment (Joinson, 2007; Suler, 2004). Suler breaks down the factors behind it as dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority. These factors tend to make users behaving freely by their own code, to be benign or hostile toward others.
This book also highlights how we become commodities that are taken for granted by irresponsible developers. It's a fact that many people already know but can't help to turn a blind eye because they're dependant on it. This theme is discussed thoroughly in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Soshana Zuboff, stay tuned for the review since I've yet to finish it!
I'd recommend this book to anyone who lurks on the internet since this book is focused on users, including us. It's hard to find a well-written book outside of the 'developers' behind the tech.
“In this book, I use the world ‘lurking� only in a positive context. Lurking is listening and witnessing on the internet, rather than opining and capturing the attention of others.� (McNeil, 2020, p.126)
Have you read any social criticism book with the same issue? What do you think about this matter?
As Neil Postman wrote in Technopoly, every new technology comes with burdens and blessings. Not either-or but this-and-that. Technology makes everything easier for us, especially in this pandemic, but it has changed how we interact with each other. This book explains the distinction between a 'person' and 'user', and what it means to our community in both good and bad light.
I think the changing nature of our social interaction is attributed as well by the online disinhibition effect, describing the lowering of psychological restraints, which often serve to regulate behaviors in the online social environment (Joinson, 2007; Suler, 2004). Suler breaks down the factors behind it as dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority. These factors tend to make users behaving freely by their own code, to be benign or hostile toward others.
This book also highlights how we become commodities that are taken for granted by irresponsible developers. It's a fact that many people already know but can't help to turn a blind eye because they're dependant on it. This theme is discussed thoroughly in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Soshana Zuboff, stay tuned for the review since I've yet to finish it!
I'd recommend this book to anyone who lurks on the internet since this book is focused on users, including us. It's hard to find a well-written book outside of the 'developers' behind the tech.
“In this book, I use the world ‘lurking� only in a positive context. Lurking is listening and witnessing on the internet, rather than opining and capturing the attention of others.� (McNeil, 2020, p.126)
Have you read any social criticism book with the same issue? What do you think about this matter?
March 30, 2020
An excellent history of the realities of being an Internet user from the beginning of public computer use to present day. It took a little bit to get accustomed to her writing style, but McNeil is very eloquent, informed, and passionate about the subject.
I highly recommend this book for those interested in the history of Internet usage, but not in a dull, highly formal way. As the cover suggests, this book is rich with diverse and colorful personal Internet anecdotes from professionals, friends of McNeil, and McNeil herself.
While you're at it, you might as well pair it up with , as there is some overlap in discussion of the gender and race gap in tech and the effect of the #MeToo Movement on Silicon Valley and tech culture.
I highly recommend this book for those interested in the history of Internet usage, but not in a dull, highly formal way. As the cover suggests, this book is rich with diverse and colorful personal Internet anecdotes from professionals, friends of McNeil, and McNeil herself.
While you're at it, you might as well pair it up with , as there is some overlap in discussion of the gender and race gap in tech and the effect of the #MeToo Movement on Silicon Valley and tech culture.
December 15, 2020
This book stoked my nostalgia for my pre-social media internet experiences of years past. Importantly the author never settled for sentimentality and pointed out that the breeding grounds of hate that we see and feel today existed back then as well - just in different spheres and with different degrees of influence. I appreciated her detailing the evolution of community online - via explorations of Friendster, MySpace, blogging and earlier incarnations of the behemoths we are all tethered to today, plus many I had never heard of. This lent important context to both her experiences and for what we all do online today. It amused me to read about her hatred for Facebook and it’s many horrid practices - I don’t disagree and enjoyed having someone else provide context to my sense of uneasiness and slapdash critique of the company. As with similar titles, this left me with much to mull over and consider.
February 28, 2021
A deeply personal account of the "golden age" of the Internet, before The Feed and endless scrolling through four-five sites/apps. By its nature, the book isn't trying to tell a comprehensive story or help users understand how big tech monetizes every aspect of their existence. It's just trying to communicate lived experience, to help people understand the way the Internet once was. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it wasn't as much of a breeding ground for fake news and conspiracy. It encouraged community in ways that The Feed does not. I would have been curious what McNeil thinks of communities moving to Slack/Signal/etc augurs for the future.
There's nothing else like this book out there, and aside from moments of polemic, it's moving.
There's nothing else like this book out there, and aside from moments of polemic, it's moving.
September 19, 2022
an internet history book that only incidentally mentions advertisement and data harvesting? girl. for real? here’s what i liked: this book does a good job centering marginalized people in the history of something that is (erroneously) considered the exclusive domain of white cis males. but overall it felt too anecdotal to be particularly illuminating. however i read it pretty quickly, so that counts for something!
Read
September 14, 2023As someone who works in big tech, this book didn't offer a ton that I didn't already know. It did provide some more context for some of the early internet days (that I am too young for), but I think I spend too much time seeped in the tech world to appreciate this book fully. If you're interested in internet history, especially around the evolution to our current state of social media and the internet in general, this book is for you. :)
May 2, 2020
While this book is rough around the edges and weaves and wanders in form, I found it a fantastic examination of the popular internet. Approaching through just over half a dozen lenses, McNeil captures many (most!) of the biggest issues with the internet when it concerns the people using it. Good to put up next to The Information.
September 3, 2021
An interesting critique on the history of social media, that takes you through a timeline of many different platforms. It suffers a bit in a third act that becomes more general as opposed to directly relevant to the topic at hand, but there is still lots to like.
December 11, 2020
Fun and interesting read, but could have been a fifteen minute Jezebel article rather than a nice.
October 8, 2024
Doesn’t especially deliver on the conceit of the title? But a page turner with lots of good dinner party fodder for the internet crazed crowd
October 21, 2020
Fantastic. Stayed up way to late to finish it. Too tired to say more.
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