Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

I don't usually review books, but the number of negative reviews of this book forces my hand. Perhaps it could be written in a different fashion, and the author truly lacks writing capacity. I don't buy into that. The book can be finished in 2 or 3 hours, without skimming it as has been suggested.

My first contact with Lanier was “You're Not A Gadget”, suggested to us in college. A few years later I would be gifted ”Who Owns The Future”, and, if anything, his writing has gotten better. It's conversational, simple, to the point. To dismiss his arguments on the basis of whether he can deliver research paper-level writing is folly.

Occasionally a book deserves a rating that isn't strictly tied to how it is written, but must get an extra star simply for relevance to society. I do the same with movies, punitively distributing or withdrawing a full star from a movie that is either important or more of the same. Like it matters. Sometimes the experience or knowledge of something trumps other more objective criteria.

And so, “Ten Arguments...” gets 5. It's important, almost mandatory reading. I left my last social network in 2013, prompted by “You're Not A Gadget”. Ever since, when I try to join another mass behavior modification network — such as Twitter, last year —, I'm filled with anxiety. You might be too.

The current business model of social media is designed to compound on the worst aspects of our communal behavior. It's destroying your soul. It's making you into an asshole. Etc., etc. You get the point.

As one of the techies, like Lanier, I confirm we're crying for the help of the masses to change a system constructed to destroy what's best in us. I build this stuff, and feel as if “Ten Arguments...” could be the rallying cry for change. If you know of a better book on the subject matter, read that one.

But read this book, too. Read it now.