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1. Wow…I didn’t know
   Wow very informative book. This book is not for the faint of heart. But if you want to know the dark side of the internet I believe this is the book you want to read.

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2. Dated, but timeless concepts
   Great read for someone who is interested in organizational behavior on a global scale.

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3. Amazing Read
   A thorough and frightening history of the power of Facebook, YouTube and other such sites to skew people‘s thinking and to create violence. And to learn how these websites refused to rein themselves in when they heard and saw what damage their algorithms were causing.

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4. Intentional Divisiveness in Social Media Makes Money
   Among the petty annoyances I hear about social media lies a far more serious issue. The realization by the social media creators that the way to get more clicks and more screen time from the user is to drive the user into emotionally charged discussions. The best emotionally charged discussions are really about hate and divisiveness. The examples of Gamergate, Charlottesville, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Trump voters demonstrate the unwillingness of the social media companies to police dangerous and misleading posts since these are the posts that generate the most revenue. Frankly, this is a bit terrifying.

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5. A Detailed Accounting of Willful Negligence
   This isn’t the first book written about the negative effects of social media on individuals and society, but it’s one of the most important. For a start the author’s sources are as unimpeachable as you’re likely to find. They include the likes of former Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Google and Facebook engineers, and people who held leadership positions for these and other companies. The things you learn come directly from the people who enabled and created the very algorithms which are at the root of the problems we face (rampant promoting of misinformation and divisive content, encouraging anger and outrage, etc.)You learn not just what the algorithms do but why they were set up that way. That in the end, Facebook, Google, Twitter and others make their money by blindly assuming that algorithms which train users to spend more and more time on their platforms, is not only good for their bottom line, but good for users. This despite strong evidence that — by design — their systems tap into human addiction mechanisms and psychology, in ways that make us more and more unhappy, the further down the rabbit hole we go. Perhaps most astonishing is the fact that the algorithms have become so automated, that if you ask Facebook and Google today how it works, they will flat out tell you that they don’t know. While this may give them some feeling of plausible deniability it does nothing to diminish their responsibility for the harmful impacts of their technology.Equally important as the sourcing and detailed reporting, the author’s writing style is quite approachable. So even if you’re not technically inclined, you won’t get left behind. He does not rely on a lot of technical jargon or concepts to get his points across, which is important when targeting a broad audience.Highly recommended.(And hoping this book ends up in many collegiate classrooms where it can help inform tomorrow’s engineers and CEOs.)

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6. An Important Study of Social Media’s Impact on the Way WeThink
   An exhaustively researched and utterly fascinating, riveting read. It’s packed with all kinds of horrific real-world examples of tech gone wrong, whether the carrot at the end of the stick is seemingly unlimited greed, power, political sway , or the spread of misinformation. Particularly interesting is near the end of the book which explains how Facebook, You Tube, Twitter and Google all profited from letting Trump and his cronies run rampant with conspiracy theories and other MAGA- oriented lies before he got elected. There are so many thought-provoking stories here about how our society became so divided it’s an essential read.

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7. Informative and Eye-opening
   I enjoyed this book because it was well written, engaging, and informative. I will never get on the internet again, look at a news site or a You Tube video without remembering that whatever I choose can lead down a never-ending rabbit hole because of built-in algorithms. I know that I can just look at one garden composter on the internet, and I’m pulled into ads and info on composters for days afterwards. If I ignore them, they go away…at last. This book explains how and why that happens and tells important stories of the violence that has even occurred in many places as a result of some of the falsehoods people have followed online when they too have found themselves unwittingly down dark rabbit holes.

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8. Used by the media an expose’
   Profound and incisive review of the new media world. Afterwards, you feel like the pawn media wants you to be. You’re profit.

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9. I didn’t think this book was going to tell me anything I didn’t know. Yeah, yeah, social media is the latest societal evil and we’re all in echo chambers.But I couldn’t put this book down. A fascinating account of how social media came to be what it is today, and the different ways it’s shaping and changing both who we are and society at large. Disheartening but starkly true, this information is vital to all human beings.What I took away from it is that SkyNet is already here. Time to pay attention.

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10. Great Book

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11. Sharply written, meticulously researched and unequivocal in its conclusions – this book explains how and why social media algorithms are the driving force in most aspects of our social and political lives today, whether we know it or not. Read it for a clear though chilling understanding of how these dynamics are playing out and the power that increasingly gives the owners of the major platforms.

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12. A deep analysis of what is wrong with social media, and its consequences around the world. The hate and polarization in many countries today, explained.

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13. Deep study of how social media mind influencing and wiring happens to human conscience, influencing actions and other outcomes triggering uncertainty to world order, orchestrating chaos and demonic use of algo explained with real life incidences, anecdotes and necessary churning points of history. This books offers comprehensive view of the subject and reduces the necessity of read any other book on similar /same object thereby making worthy time investment to study, perceive and analyse.

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