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EXTREMELY ONLINE

The untold story of fame, influence, and power on the internet.

by Taylor Lorenz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2023

A capable piece of historical research that breaks little new ground.

A technology journalist looks at the downside of the social media revolution.

A former tech reporter for the New York Times , Lorenz is now a columnist for the Washington Post , and she has been accused of reporting errors. In her debut book, the author walks us through the rise of the major platforms, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, and recounts the eclipse of MySpace and Vine. She identifies “mommy bloggers” as the first group to become influencers and the first to see the potential for monetization of their social media presence. (Readers interested in a more in-depth discussion of this aspect of the online world should turn to Stephanie McNeal’s Swipe Up for More! ) The development of simple video editing tools switched the emphasis from written to visual material, and internet-enabled phones meant that social media became ubiquitous. The problem with this book is that Lorenz fails to offer enough novel analysis of the industry. There are already numerous books on influencers, YouTube, online celebrity marketing, and virtually every other aspect of the social media phenomenon. The author’s theme is that while social media has changed the business and cultural landscape by giving power to creative individuals, it has also created a dangerous whirlpool of conflict, exploitation, and disinformation. True enough, but it’s hardly a revolutionary insight. Is she unaware of the widespread view that has taken hold in the past few years that social media is a very mixed blessing? This points to the most surprising aspect of the book: It seems dated and dull. The author’s online followers might like it, but other people will probably be unimpressed. Social media, writes Lorenz, “is often dismissed by traditionalists as a vacant fad, when in fact it is the greatest and most disruptive change in modern capitalism.” If only the text reflected the gravitas of that disruption.

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023

ISBN: 9781982146863

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023

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THE MESSAGE

by Ta-Nehisi Coates ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.

Bearing witness to oppression.

Award-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow Coates probes the narratives that shape our perception of the world through his reports on three journeys: to Dakar, Senegal, the last stop for Black Africans “before the genocide and rebirth of the Middle Passage”; to Chapin, South Carolina, where controversy erupted over a writing teacher’s use of Between the World and Me in class; and to Israel and Palestine, where he spent 10 days in a “Holy Land of barbed wire, settlers, and outrageous guns.” By addressing the essays to students in his writing workshop at Howard University in 2022, Coates makes a literary choice similar to the letter to his son that informed Between the World and Me ; as in that book, the choice creates a sense of intimacy between writer and reader. Interweaving autobiography and reportage, Coates examines race, his identity as a Black American, and his role as a public intellectual. In Dakar, he is haunted by ghosts of his ancestors and “the shade of Niggerology,” a pseudoscientific narrative put forth to justify enslavement by portraying Blacks as inferior. In South Carolina, the 22-acre State House grounds, dotted with Confederate statues, continue to impart a narrative of white supremacy. His trip to the Middle East inspires the longest and most impassioned essay: “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes. In his complex analysis, he sees the trauma of the Holocaust playing a role in Israel’s tactics in the Middle East: “The wars against the Palestinians and their Arab allies were a kind of theater in which ‘weak Jews’ who went ‘like lambs to slaughter’ were supplanted by Israelis who would ‘fight back.’” Roiled by what he witnessed, Coates feels speechless, unable to adequately convey Palestinians’ agony; their reality “demands new messengers, tasked as we all are, with nothing less than saving the world.”

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9780593230381

Page Count: 176

Publisher: One World/Random House

Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | U.S. GOVERNMENT | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES

More by Ta-Nehisi Coates

THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG ADULTS)

BOOK REVIEW

by Ta-Nehisi Coates ; illustrated by Jackie Aher

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2020

BEYOND THE GENDER BINARY

From the pocket change collective series.

by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.

Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.

The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.

Pub Date: June 2, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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Book Review: ‘Extremely Online’ shows how creators and influencers have shaped social media

This cover image released by Simon & Schuster shows “Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet” by Taylor Lorenz. (Simon & Schuster via AP)

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There’s no shortage of books published in the past several years that have focused on the recent history of social media companies and the founders of the tech giants running them.

In “Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet,” Taylor Lorenz makes a valuable and entertaining contribution to that collection by telling the story through the prism of the users, creators and influencers who have shaped social media and its impact on our culture.

Lorenz, technology columnist for The Washington Post, has written what she calls a social history of social media that profiles the motley collection of figures who have had arguably more influence on the landscape of the modern Internet than most Silicon Valley executives.

From mommy bloggers to TikTok celebrities, Lorenz focuses on the users who “revolutionized new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, ambition in the 21st century.”

As someone who has covered those new approaches over the years, Lorenz is well-positioned to chronicle that history. Lorenz tells the story of how tech companies struggled to adapt to users’ needs and demands over the past two decades.

The book is an enlightening history of the pioneers of influencers such as bloggers Heather Armstrong and Julia Allison, as well as the rise and fall of platforms such MySpace and Vine.

She also explores the dark side of social media’s rise, looking at how platforms have been weaponized from “Gamergate” to the rapid spread of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. She lays bare the challenges created by the transformation of social media, noting that “tech founders may control source code, but users shape the product.”

Extremely Online review: A vital look at the creator economy

Taylor Lorenz goes behind the scenes of the multibillion-dollar influencer industry to trace its meteoric rise in this fascinating book

By Chris Stokel-Walker

11 October 2023

Close-up Happy Asian girl influencer wear headphone with guitar record podcast onair online live streaming talk follower comment and audience on phone at home studio. Female podcaster, Audio podcast.

Celebrity creators have better brand recognition among younger generations than some Hollywood stars

MTStock Studio/Getty Images

Extremely Online Taylor Lorenz (WH Allen)

SOCIAL media has changed our lives in many ways. It is now possible to keep in touch with close friends and family wherever they are on Earth, and to bridge divides that, in previous generations, would have seemed impossible to close. Social media is also where we engage with each other and learn about the world, making breaking news more urgent and immediate.

But the biggest impact of the past 20 years of technology is arguably neither of…

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