Extremely Online

Me sorprendió gratamente encontrar un recorrido de lo que fueron las redes sociales en Internet desde una perspectiva diferente. Lejos de relatar una vez más episodios como Gamergate o los tablones de imágenes, el libro explora la blogósfera desde una perspectiva mucho más cercana a lo popular de la época. El auge de influencers y la consolidación del fenómeno, o los derroteros de redes sociales hoy transformadas u olvidadas son elementos que este libro desarrolla muy bien. Si te interesa la temática, puedes encontrar nuevos datos e información aquí sin dudas.

A fast (but, at times, suprisingly in-depth) survey of the rise of user-generated content in the age of social marketing, "Creators", and influencers.

@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social shines a light on some familiar faces but also gives a voice and shows the work done by a lot of folks forgotten or ignored by the current narratives around the landscape of attention-seeking platforms, products, and people.

What ultimately sets this book apart from so many others that have also focused on the companies and products that shape our world today is that Lorenz examines the people behind the content, not the technology.

Worth a read.

I’m not certain I know who this book is for, but it wasn’t for me. There is some analysis at the end, but I would’ve liked a bit more. It often just read like a Wikipedia article about influencers. It was a bit boring at the start, got good around the Vine section, then felt rushed at the end. I dunno, if you’re into mainstream online celebrities this might be interesting to see how they moved from one platform to the other, but I couldn’t imagine caring about these people. Well-researched, though. Just imagining compiling this info makes my head spin.