"Fortunately, finally, we seem ready to have the necessary conversations about how social media has changed our hearts and minds and politics, including the hard conversations. And this is the right book for our moment. It lays out, in crisp, compelling language, why Facebook may be good for some individuals but not good for democracy. Antisocial Media is not negative or defeatist. But it does not sugarcoat the facts. We can only remake technology to conform to new social values if we do the hard work of committing to what they are. That''s a problem that Facebook can''t solve. This is history, philosophy, and a call to action." -Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, MIT, and author of Reclaiming Conversation and Alone Together

"Hello, reader. Do you use Facebook? Do you see it more times in a given day than you, say, drink a glass of water? If so, I suggest you find out from Siva Vaidhyanathan to what it is that you''ve given not only yourself, but also your crucial little portion of our world. He''s the one who can tell you." -Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude

"As a San Franciscan, I''ve had a front-row seat for the rise of Silicon Valley as a global power, and what the glossy new oligarchs have brought us terrifies me, as has the widespread obliviousness to the consequences of their new systems of information control. It''s made me enormously grateful for Siva Vaidhyanathan, who set out after the election to dissect exactly how Facebook had helped corrupt our minds, our culture, our elections, and our governments. His scathing conclusions here should both chill you and equip you to face the perils the new information megacorporations pose to each and all of us." -Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark

"An eye -opening and provocative examination of the unintended consequences that this tech giant inflicted on the global community it created." --Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Cyberwar

"Facebook''s plan to connect the world has backfired. Democratic societies are unraveling everywhere. Conflict is trumping community, suspicion is undermining trust. Antisocial Media is the best account of how and why the world''s leading tech firms have contributed to this crisis, here and across the globe. Vaidhyanathan''s message is not merely necessary; it''s urgent." --Eric Klinenberg, Professor of Sociology at NYU and author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life

"Vaidhyanathan does have some solutions in mind, but they are not the simple tweaks Facebook proposes. There''s no way at this point to reengineer a platform that rewards hasty, emotional, shallow engagement or moderates content to ensure two billion people behave themselves. We need to work across borders to make these steps multinational if not global. And we need to do it soon. The lamps are going out all over Europe again, and far beyond." -- Barbara Fister, Inside HigherEd

"In

"Antisocial Media," University of Virginia professor Siva Vaidhyanathan gives a full and rigorous accounting of Facebook''s sins. Much of the criticism will be familiar to anyone who has been following the news about the company. What distinguishes the book is Vaidhyanathan''s skill in putting the social media phenomenon into a broader context - legal, historical and political." -- Nicholas Carr, The Washington Post

"In a post-Cambridge Analytica, post-Donald Trump election world, Vaidhyanathan''s book [Antisocial Media] is a critique of the

"Facebook machine" and the ways it operates on users in terms of

"pleasure, surveillance, attention, protest, politics, and disinformation." - Express Newspaper Service, The Indian Express

"Vaidhyanathan has written a structured response to the behemoth that is Facebook. He acknowledges all the rhetorically valid ways in which Facebook might offer emotionally fulfilling interactions (the author himself is a user), but he buttresses these emotive motivations with close readings of the filter bubble, monetization of all transactions on the platform, and even the inherent vice of

"good" business... Verdict: Ideal for readers who live in the world of social media who want to put these platforms into context." --Jesse A. Lambertson, Library Journal

"An excellent critique of the social media giant underlines the threat it poses to us all - and suggests how it can be tamed. -- John Naughton, The Guardian

"With 30 per cent of the world''s population on Facebook, Vaidhyanathan contends that the platform could become the operating system of our lives. And while it''s fun to catch up with old school friends, its

"mediated cacophony" is a powerful tool for the vocal minority to quickly subvert silent majorities. Zuckerberg himself is curiously complacent. Facebook, he says,

"is just too big to govern. We are victims of its success." -- Nick Smith, Engineering & Technology