The Chaos Machine

I’m part of the age group that was the last to know a life without an internet, but also be proficient enough to be able to navigate said internet with more than just a passing, “Oh, I asked google” knowledge. Increasingly I’ve found myself wanting to be on social media less and less, a very bold take I know. I have taken some steps - deleted twitter and facebook off my phone - but not much else. I was pretty stuck in what more I should do. I’ve been a listener of the Pod Save America network for a while, and was particularly interested by their Offline series - a podcast looking at social media and trying to stop that addiction. I listened for a bit, but then fell off. It was fairly new at the time and only had 5 or so episodes. A couple of months later, I came back to it when I saw that they had added a co-host, Max Fisher, and were doing a challenge about getting more offline.

As I listened to the backlog, Max’s book kept coming up in bits and pieces. I added it to my “to read” list, and then forgot about that for a while. After a 3rd email from audible reminding me I had credits to spend, I figured I’d use some on Max’s book. Social media was an interesting topic, even if I knew about it for the most part. I used twitter and reddit and saw The Social Network. So I really was surprised when I kept learning new things even though I was pretty chronically online for a while. It really took me from, “Oh social media is a bit annoying and I should probably stop,” to, “I need to get off everything ASAP.” The biggest amount of praise I can give this book is that I think everyone should read it. I would guess that twitter + facebook + instagram equates to over 10 billion users, most of which have no idea how they’re being influenced. I would guess a majority think they’re not being influenced at all. Fisher’s book is easy to follow along with, and provides, I think, crucial information for anyone on the internet.

First read of 2024 is a must-read for me. Spoiler for #2, it’s also about the internet.