An impassioned exploration of the ways in which social media has manipulated us all
‘Witty, rigorous, and as urgent as a fire alarm’ Dorian Lynskey
‘Cooly prosecutorial’ Guardian
Nobody meant for this to happen.
Facebook didn’t mean to facilitate a genocide.
Twitter didn’t want to be used to harass women.
YouTube never planned to radicalise young men.
But with billions of users, these platforms need only tweak their algorithms to generate more ‘engagement’. In so doing, they bring unrest to previously settled communities and erode our relationships.
Social warming has happened gradually – as a by-product of our preposterously convenient digital existence. But the gradual deterioration of our attitudes and behaviour on- and offline – this vicious cycle of anger and outrage – is real. And it can be corrected. Here’s how.
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‘Coolly prosecutorial’
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Guardian"
‘A compelling account of how a handful of social media platforms came to dominate society and how to minimise the damage they cause, because “We can’t uninvent them”.’
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Mirror"
‘Fascinating… As “connected” as we may feel on social media, Social Warming thoroughly shows how detached we’ve all become not just online but in real life too.’
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Porchlight