This is an automatically translated description

About the book:

Your social media data is being ruthlessly exploited under the guise of good intentions to make your life easier and your choices more informed. The algorithm that selects your social media posts distorts your perception of information and even changes your mood: happy photos of your successful friends can only make you feel even more sad if you are already sad. And it's all your fault: why do you spend all your free time on social media?

The author of this book, Jaron Lanier, provides an alternative way to use new technologies effectively and get rid of the addiction to notifications, likes, and other dopamine hooks. He also tells us how to be a 'cat', independent and conscious.

About the author:

Jaron Lanier does not have any pages on social networks, which does not prevent him from being a successful programmer and a popular author, composer, and artist. Lanier is the author of the term "virtual reality" and the founder of technology startups that were later acquired by Oracle, Adobe, Google, and Pfizer. Wired Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people in the last 25 years of technology history, Foreign Policy named him one of the world's 100 most influential intellectuals, and Encyclopaedia Britannica named him one of the greatest inventors in history.

Why this book is interesting:

The author is the founder of a company that was one of the first to sell virtual reality glasses and works for Microsoft Research, so you would hardly expect him to be against the development of digital technologies. However, he explains that not all modern technologies are useful for our development, especially social media, which does not allow society to develop and does not contribute to the spread of empathy and spirituality.

• What other questions can the book answer
?
• How do large amounts of information on social media harm our psyche?
• Do social networks really make us angrier? Who recommends the book

  "A concise, sharp, emotional critique of the surveillance technologies run by the big Silicon Valley corporations."

  — Financial Times

  .

  "It's all here - from the pursuit of status to the loss of context - and it's one of Lanier's best works."

  — The Times

  Awards

  • WIRED's favourite book of all time
  • The best book of all time
  The best book of 2018 according to the Financial Times