Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet | 
pick🎧 Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz. This book gives a timeline of how social media was changing in the past two decades. Human connection, greed, grift, opportunities, hateful things, doors that open and close, inequality. Heavy focus on the money made from it.
pickI read this for book club and although it's not something I would have picked up on my own, it was definitely interesting. Lorenz traces the history of social media platforms from the early days of MySpace to the current world of TikTok. While the book touches on topics like online harassment and misinformation, the true focus is the tension between founders' intentions, corporate profit seeking, and the creative twists innovated by users.
Compelling overview though we did speed right through things like the AOL and LiveJournal eras with a quick wave. Made me aware of, even coming up with a lot of these platforms, I wasn‘t really aware of a lot of the big creators. Would have loved a deeper dive into the different subcultures of different platforms/spaces.
pickTaylor Lorenz wrote a social history of social media. She starts with the glory days of the early internet and mommy bloggers and brings us to the present reality of monetized influencer culture. I felt some heavy nostalgia for 90s dial up when the internet was free with possibilities. 💻 🛜
pickThis is basically the history of influencing from before it was called or even thought of as that. They write about how social media is monetized and why and who comes out on top from companies to individual stars. They share why MySpace and Vine failed and how YouTube, TikTok and Instagram thrived. Interesting #BorrowNotBuy!
