Welcome to Litsy!

My final challenge check in for January is this slim novel by a Dutch author for #FoodandLit.

I‘m not sure enjoyed is the right word here - and after reading some of the “rules” for what content gets left up, flagged, or taken off the fictional social media platform in the book, you‘ll see that words matter - but this book made me think about how we strive to put things (and people) into boxes vs seeing the bigger picture.

A rather bleak novella about a group of people working at a firm where they moderate online content for a significant, unnamed client. In only a handful of pages, it demonstrates the bureaucratic, corporate-speak nonsense the determines what remains online and what goes. It also shows, rather than tells, in incredibly detrimental nature of such work, and its impact and insidious effect on those who work in the industry. Depressing but important.

This is a tough little novella to get through because it follows the dire reality of content moderators who sort through the worst of the worst of online content for work. Kayleigh's devolving relationship with her girlfriend and coworker, Sigrid, paints a picture of how the employees mental health is upended by their job. Lots of TWs but the topics are rarely explored in more than passing detail.

This was short and quite difficult - it explores the impact of content moderation on a meta style tech giant. It‘s a novella with an abrupt ending but in it builds a sense of dread as folks react in different ways to what they see - from numbness to believing. Great example of an unreliable narrator

This is an odd one that didn‘t really go anywhere…

Read for reading prompts

3.75/5

Library book 📖

Kayleigh works at a social media platform as a moderator, reviewing uploaded content and deciding what can stay up and what has to be removed – she watches hundreds of videos depicting violence, child abuse, animal abuse, self harm and acts of terrorism every day. It's an interesting premise and I really liked the way this book was written, but it ended so abruptly and without any real closure. 😔
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
#dutch #dutchauthor 🇳🇱

Grabbed this novella today without knowing much about it. Upon finish I was surprised by the extremes of opinions. If you‘re looking for gore, you won‘t find it, although there isn‘t a lack of disturbing events, they just aren‘t the focus. Instead this is a slow psychological exploration of how internet trauma can warp good people. Or, maybe they weren‘t really such good to begin with. Some say the ending is abrupt, I felt it was an epiphany.

Just finished this audiobook, but it wasn‘t really what I expected and I‘m glad I didn‘t buy the book. I thought it was about MORE. I expected it to be deeper. But it wasn‘t. The idea was interesting but the story ended up being mainly about one side of a probably toxic relationship. Also the ending was super random I felt.
2/5⭐️

Definitely a disturbing novella about a fascinating, dark topic. Didn‘t ‘get‘ the ending so it felt abrupt, but will be thinking about it for days.

I may have rated this a so-so, but it's a quick read I'd still suggest reading.

This book does a great job of bringing up the darker side of society's social media consumption. For me, I was more disturbed at how the book points out how quickly we "normalize" occurrences due to our constant exposure through social media.

Although overall it didn't work for me, it still has left me thinking about it weeks after finishing it.

That was nauseatingly uncomfortable on purpose. I think I would recommend reading the non-fiction articles cited at the end, over this book and its unreliable and progressively more traumatized and traumatizing characters, if you want to investigate what being a content moderator on the internet does to a human. Excuse me while I go find something fluffy with pretty pictures.

This one has an interesting premise but missed the mark for me. My main takeaway was it might explain why moderation on some social media sites is so lacking.

This was brutal. It was, to me, a study in the extremes of PTSD from work environments. It was twisted, dark, and haunting, but grounded in the reality of social media moderators. Trigger warnings for just about everything. The writing was intense but this was a page turner, so I will be looking for the author‘s other work to be translated into English.

I've never read a novel that fell so far short of its description. The only "good" thing about this book is that it doesn't take long to read.

Terrible.

This is my library haul for today. I was also hoping to get my hands on the new Thursday Murder Club book, but I need to put a hold as it was checked out already. I‘ll be watching 42nd Street this evening and enjoying the closest thing to fall weather we‘ve had in SC so far this year.

An examination of social media & the mental strain of being a moderator. An interesting psychological exploration delivered in a tight clip. Some great observations & provokes thought, but doesn't really go anywhere. Starts off strong, but then spirals into repetition. A lot of telling vs. showing & resulting lack of intensity. A left field ending that wasn't conclusive. Good thought piece with decent writing, but an incomplete execution.

A pick but only just….. I found the premise of this short novella intriguing and unsettling, and tore through it… BUT although I usually don‘t mind an ambiguous ending, this one felt unfinished. A young woman takes a job with questionable working conditions, that‘s also kinda secret, deciding which horrific/offensive/dangerous etc, social media posts, should be taken down, and which remain for our scrolling ‘pleasure‘…. (Continued in comments)⬇️

This novella is only just a pick for me. The MC is a moderator in a call-centre, looking at distressing internet videos. I liked the in-depth look at how this can cause trauma and reverberations throughout the lives of the protagonists, but I‘m afraid I just didn‘t understand the ending.

Maybe, Mr McEwan, it was just too subtle or maybe I‘m just not psychologically astute enough, but it was very 🤔 and almost spoiled the book for me.

Only 130 odd pages and easily devoured in a day. Kayleigh takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she can't mention. All day she and her colleagues review offensive and violent content and decide which to remove and which can remain accordingly to the platform's strict guidelines. How does viewing such content day in day out affect a person?

15

This novella made me consider a side to social media that I had not given much thought to previously: the psychological effects on the content moderators that are employed by these organisations.

Protagonist Kayleigh is vulnerable to the manipulations of others in her personal life. Through her eyes, we witness the insipid effects of the content and judgements that she and her workmates engage in daily.

Thank you Netgallery for the opportunity

Kayleigh works for an online platform as a content moderator. She has to watch shocking content for hours a day and decide what should be removed. Not surprisingly she and her co-workers cling together somewhat desperately in their spare time. They drink and play tough but can‘t avoid being influenced by what they are watching all day. Conspiracy theories take over their conversations. An okay read.