Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Jaron Lanier

Henry Holt and Company, May 29, 2018 - Computers - 146 pages

AS SEEN IN THE NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY THE SOCIAL DILEMMA
A WIRED "ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK"
A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK
"THE CONSCIENCE OF SILICON VALLEY"- GQ

“Profound . . . Lanier shows the tactical value of appealing to the conscience of the individual. In the face of his earnest argument, I felt a piercing shame about my own presence on Facebook. I heeded his plea and deleted my account.”
- Franklin Foer, The New York Times Book Review

“Mixes prophetic wisdom with a simple practicality . . . Essential reading.”
- The New York Times (Summer Reading Preview)

You might have trouble imagining life without your social media accounts, but virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier insists that we’re better off without them. In Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms.

Lanier’s reasons for freeing ourselves from social media’s poisonous grip include its tendency to bring out the worst in us, to make politics terrifying, to trick us with illusions of popularity and success, to twist our relationship with the truth, to disconnect us from other people even as we are more “connected” than ever, to rob us of our free will with relentless targeted ads. How can we remain autonomous in a world where we are under continual surveillance and are constantly being prodded by algorithms run by some of the richest corporations in history that have no way of making money other than being paid to manipulate our behavior? How could the benefits of social media possibly outweigh the catastrophic losses to our personal dignity, happiness, and freedom? Lanier remains a tech optimist, so while demonstrating the evil that rules social media business models today, he also envisions a humanistic setting for social networking that can direct us toward a richer and fuller way of living and connecting with our world.

Contents

• Introduction with cats: 1
• The mad scientist turns out to care about the: 8
• Heaven and hell are made of other people: 16
• Addiction and free will are opposites: 23
• Quitting social media is the most: 25
• The problem is limited so we can contain it: 37
• Social media is making: 39
• The mysterious nature of asshole amplification: 44
• Go to where you are kindest: 51
• BUMMER kills: 59
• Social media is making what you: 63
• Pod people: 69
• Digitally imposed social numbness: 76
• The wrong end of the BUMMER: 85
• Argument Eight: 93
• Better than BUMMER: 99
• Arc burn: 107
• Gamergate: 113
• If only this game were already over: 123
• BUMMER faith: 132
• Cats have nine lives: 141
• About the Author: 147

About the author

Jaron Lanier is a scientist, musician, and writer best known for his work in virtual reality and his advocacy of humanism and sustainable economics in a digital context. His 1980s start-up VPL Research created the first commercial VR products and introduced avatars, multi-person virtual world experiences, and prototypes of major VR applications such as surgical simulation. His books Who Owns the Future? and You Are Not a Gadget were international bestsellers, and Dawn of the New Everything was named a 2017 best book of the year by The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Vox.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now; Business book summary
• Author: Jaron Lanier
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, 2018
• ISBN: 125019668X, 9781250196682
• Length: 146 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); Computers / Internet / Social Media; Computers / Social Aspects; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Social Science / General; Social Science / Technology Studies