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Lurking

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Art and technology critic Joanne McNeil’s debut work “Lurking” is a trenchant, topical and thoughtful verdict on the incredibly complex but almost symbiotic relationship between digital platforms and users. The adjective lurking, usually employed in a pejorative sense, is however used in an ingenious and original fashion by Ms. McNeil to conflate innocuous prying with insidious stalking or even usurpation. Such a usurpation is more likely than not, of intangible attributes such as dignity, privacy and opinion.

While paeans extolling the achievements of tech entrepreneurs compete with excoriating indictment of cut-throat Information Technology mercenaries for shelf space and eyeballs, there has been a surprisingly, and unfortunately negligible coverage dealing with that one important element in the entire digital/online transactional or consumption value chain – the passive user. Before Ms. McNeil’s book, that is. She hold forth on the now well recognized and accepted principle prevalent in internet communities, going by the moniker of the one percent rule. An alpha numeric euphemism for lurking, this rule expounds that only one percent of users in any given digital community create new content. The remaining 99 percent hover about apparition like (my analogy), clicking links, absorbing posts, and unwittingly volunteering to be the fodder driving the digital economy. It is this 99% that is the focus of Ms. McNeil’s engaging book.

But who is a ‘lurker’ in the esoteric and ephemeral online universe? A lurker is one whose involvement is not tantamount to participation. For example, I personally neither leave frequent comments on Facebook, not “like” posts. But I keep browsing through the variegated feeds appearing on my timeline. This makes me a ‘lurker.’ However, an inveterate gravitation towards Twitter to express my angst, anxiety and anger in 280 furious characters makes me an active participant. Blending together a tapestry of personal experience with interesting interviews, Ms. McNeil takes her readers through the early social networks, like Friendster, MySpace, and local BBSes (bulletin board systems), explaining how users of devolved their online identities. An identity brought about via a technological visibility that serves as “another tool of privacy—a way of controlling one’s image as others regarded it.” Ms. McNeil also highlights the unquenchable thirst for profits that has made the Big Tech commodify the user. The experience of a user is a contrived, artificial one dictated by the unseen workings of complex algorithms and powered by the insatiable greed of advertisers. Stoking fuel to an already brightly burning fire is the invidious impact of cyber ostracism and bullying that leads to undesirable consequences such as segregation and totalitarian outlook. “Google and Facebook… have taken over functions of a state without administering the benefits or protections of a state.” But this is not a recent phenomenon. As Ms. McNeil informs her readers, the once ubiquitous AOL, during their pioneering days, once ended up hosting a page for the Texas Ku Klux Klan. The ridiculous and febrile argument for such an act being the right to assemble as accorded by the first amendment.

Ms. McNeil reserves her choicest polemic for Facebook though. “Facebook shoehorns values into patterns, removes nuance, and presents it as ruled by a ‘fundamental mathematical law.’” As Ms. McNeil illustrates once a raw and not so suave Mark Zuckerberg famously termed people voluntarily handing over data to him as “dumb fucks.” Even though this irreverent remark was made when the concept of a social network was just a seed germinating in the founder’s mind, this did not prevent the global populace from willingly handing over both themselves and their data to this glorified Ivy league drop out. According to Ms. McNeil Facebook is a corporation of “data gluttony and shamelessness,” as well as “endless ethical quagmires.” The monolithic and leviathan status of Facebook was given a slight tickle when Ello an online social networking service created by Paul Budnitz and Todd Berger in March 2014 made a hopeful appearance. Created as an ad-free alternative to existing social networks, it was noble in its intent, but miserably and woefully short in its execution. As Ms. McNeil informs the reader about her personal experience with Ello, an attitude of misogynistic pugilism and patriarchy put paid to the hopes of this upstart, to dismantle the behemoth. At the time of this review, Ello has morphed into a poor man’s Pinterest exhibiting art, photography, fashion and web culture.

We have traversed a long, exciting and conflicting journey in so far as the internet is concerned. Our experience has ranged from the vaudevillian to the vapid. However, as Ms. McNeil illustrates in a poignant manner, it was always not like this. “The internet was never peaceful, never fair, never good,” says Ms. McNeil, “but early on it was benign, and use of it was more imaginative, less common, and less obligatory.” ECHO, an acronym for “East Coast Hang Out” was one classic example of a benevolent version of the internet. The quintessential idea underlying the creation of echo was for users, most of whom lived in the New York City area, to meet one another. The group organised open-mic nights, softball games, and film screenings. An unseen celebrity was the young John F. Kennedy Jr. posting under an imaginatively titled username, “flash.” Echo founder Stacy Horn describes the platform’s essence in her invigorating and compelling memoir: “Everybody has a trace of an ache—some eternal disappointment, or longing, that is satisfied, at least for a minute each day, by a familiar group and by a place that will always be there.”

But as Ms. McNeil brilliantly demonstrates, internet in the current age only goes to exacerbate the ache that Ms. Horn refers to instead of acting as an ameliorating balm.

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An intimate eye opening look at the beginning off the internet.The author shares with us her personal story from the origins of chat rooms where the members are still friendly todayThe internet dominates our lives it’s information central really enjoyed reading her personal story .#netgalley#fsg

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Being born in the late 80s, I feel like Lurking by Joanne McNeil is the perfect book for me and my peer group, having grown up with some of the most formative developments in social media - LiveJournal, MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Throughout reading the book, I found myself really enjoying how McNeil shared some of her own personal backstory in becoming a social media user in between her main exploration of the significances and effects of what it means for all of us to gather, right here, on the internet, in all our own little pockets and corners of the vast online world. And the ways in which she moves back and forth between chronicling and thus interpreting how the internet and having any sort of presence on social media can be both positive or negative (and in so many different ways) was something that really held my attention.

This is a somewhat small book, at only about 300 pages in length, but it is full of some really fascinating knowledge on and examinations of the history and rapid evolution of the internet/social media that I think any social media user would value.

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In Lurking: How a Person Became a User, Joanne McNeil takes on the development of online internet communities. She discusses the evolution of Google and of social networks, beginning with the history of one of the earliest, Friendster, then to Myspace and Facebook, up to and including the optimistic platforms that believe they can serve as less commercial/problematic replacements to the monster that Facebook has become.

Throughout, the author’s tone oscillates between wonder and fear. These online spaces, these communities that we build for ourselves, have an incredible ability to bring people together in a way that simply can't be done offline. We can easily find people who like what we like, we can share knowledge, and bond with people on the other side of the Earth. The internet has simplified and enriched our lives in truly remarkable ways.

But the whole time she is acknowledging these pluses, McNeil is very aware and makes sure that we as readers are very aware of the negative side to the coin; that same ability to connect people has the ability to calcify incredibly toxic opinions and frames of mind. She also makes a point to highlight what we trade to acquire those connections. A large portion of the book is dedicated to discussing how much of our own privacy, and even our person-hood we have to sacrifice and how much abuse we have to be willing to face in order to have the online presences that now seem be necessities rather than luxuries. In short, online social networks, in a much more magnified way than in person, give us a terrible, yet remarkable ability to be seen. It's one of several reasons why I refer to the internet as "the best, worst thing."

This book is an intriguing look at the settlement of the virtual wild west, from its early beginnings up to the current lay of the land. Anyone who regularly participates in online communities (that is to say, most of us) should considering picking this book up as it contains many powerful observations that will likely make you see your own relationship with the internet a little differently. The book is a little more anecdotal than ideal in such a study, but is certainly worth your time.

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This is an intimate account on how an internet user (the author) experienced the early rise of internet. There are many fascinating accounts on how people of 20th century used this technology and this somehow reflects the human psyche.

The chapters are free flowing with stories so reading this book feels like listening to your someone who has lots of stories to tell. It is difficult to predict where the discussion will go. The chapter titles can help though.

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Welcome to the Internet, as told by your older, cooler, sister. In her first book, Lurking: How a Person Became a User, Joanne McNeil presents a short history of the Web as we know it, and how it has gone from an obscure hobby to a near-necessity at the hands of large corporations. Like a great oldies radio station, McNeil plays the hits and goes into the stories behind them: AOL Messenger, Friendster, Facebook, Myspace, all make appearances as her experience as an Internet user builds from edgy and defining to ubiquitous.

McNeil begins reminiscing on the whys of someone would go on the Internet back in the days of yore. She paints a picture of the communities that existed, like Echo or East Coast Hang Out, when the Internet consisted of people posting on message boards, and less, well, everything. Net users had various interests and they would meet up to chat and share info. Eventually many community boards (not Echo) fell prey to the dot com crash after everything moved onto the Web, but that sense of community stayed. Much of the book chronicles the potential of giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, as well as what they can or should do with their enormous power.

For all the warnings against the power of the corporate overlords, McNeil strays from the real sense of fandom that warms up the first half of the book. It quickly turns jeremiad when she begins chronicling the sins of Google mass documentation projects or the ways that Facebook alienates users that it hopes to connect. When McNeil feels forced to admit that efforts have been made to resolve some of the problems she lists, she feels equally reluctant to trust any of these companies again. But, as she points out, more open source, less viable alternatives simply can’t seem to compete.

Technophiles with penchant for nostalgia will devour Lurking. For those who don’t remember the beginning of the millennium quite so well, it can serve as primer for terms we’ve read about a million terms as well as why we can’t trust Big Brother. Doubtless the best “user’s guide” I’ve read in a long time – written by an actual user.

Three stars out of five

Pages: 304 pages

Favorite quote: “Anonymity is the state of being public but unacknowledged, while privacy refers to protection from intrusion from the public.”

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Books about our internet are nothing new but this one proved to be more personal as in what someone on twitter used to say "when the internet was still magical". A mix of personal essay style and contemporary criticism of technology, this book would be a lovely gift for anyone who thinks the internet is a mess (it is but not all of it).

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Read if you: Enjoy tech history but want something offbeat and from a unique perspective.

Histories about the Internet are nothing new, but they are often focused on the creators. This takes a more intimate (and personal) look at how users interacted/have interacted with early BBS, AOL, Friendster, Instagram, Reddit, and the like. Don't expect a chronological overview of the Internet--this is more of an essay collection than that. It's unique, entertaining, and eye-opening..

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus, & Giroux and NetGalley for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I loved this book. It is a great social history, seen from the perspective of the early explosion of the internet. I particularly loved reading about how chat rooms in New York created a real-life community that exists to this day. It also acts as a great companion piece to Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley.

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Thanks to MCD and NetGalley for an ARC of this!

I came into this expecting something more non-fiction/historical and instead was fully delighted and surprised that it's an essay collection about the way the internet has changed. I'd put it somewhere between Claire Evans' [book:Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet|35953464] (in terms of the examples it gives as we move from Usenet to Echo to AOL to Facebook) and Jia Tolentino's [book:Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion|43126457] in the way the author is willing to look incisively at her own experiences as the internet has changed. I loved both of those books, so it's no surprise I was similarly charmed by this.

This book breaks down how we went from the more utopian spaces we dreamed the internet to be into the five-sites-everyone-hates landscape we have now, through concepts like Search, Visibility, Community, Accountability, etc. This is a great review of the lessons we learned and the ones we should have learned, if we look at history. I think a lot about the notion of etchics in tech, and I think this is a great addition to the shelf of books that are starting to help us think through the effects our actions have.

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I absolutely loved this book of social criticism and history of social media online over the past few decades. Beginning with Usenet and BBS, traveling through AOL and Yahoo groups, Friendster MySpace, blogging, Facebook, Reddit, and more, the author analyzes the changing nature of what it means to be a person online in social spaces. Media these days is full of pearl-clutchers with their hair on fire about how awful, addicting, and abusive various online spaces are, but McNeil reels it back in and contextualizes various travesties-of-the-day. My experience online (now and in the past) makes more sense to me after having read this book.

Highly recommended, especially if you've been online long enough to see prior popular e-spaces go fallow, and particularly if you remember accessing the internet with a dial-up modem on a family computer.

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Lately, I've been reading a lot about social media and the internet in hopes of figuring out how to not be miserable online. I read most of this book at different coffeeshops with my friend, and I kept interrupting her to share quotes, which is always a good sign. The way McNeil traces the history of social usage of the internet is particularly informative, and provides an excellent study of why today's sites can feel so bad. The chapter on Facebook is really, really good. I appreciate how careful and considerate McNeil is in her writing - she points out that leaving Facebook is a privilege, and her accounting of how online harassment has developed is very thoughtful about power dynamics. I really enjoyed this, and it helped me put shape to the general nebulous negative feelings I get while using certain social media platforms.

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I love history of the Internet books, and this was a pleasure to read. The path from forums and Friendster to our current hellscape is well-established, though I would have loved some more discussion of 4/8chan and Facebook/Twitter alts (Nextdoor/Gab, respectively, and yes I went there). There’s something that should be said about bots in the evolution of person to user—but that’s just my personal preference and might be too political for an overview. Shelf Awareness’ summary as “a people’s history of the Internet” is probably the best description and compliment I can give. Will be lurking around Joanne McNeil from now on!

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Take a break from the endless scroll:
Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil

Look around—whether you’re reading this on a train, at the airport, or in the back of a car, we’re pretty positive that people all around you are also staring at their phones. In Lurking, writer and cultural critic Jaonne McNeil investigates her years of living online and what that means for the future of all of her fellow “users.” Chapters dig into topics like the internet user’s evolution from reclusive loser to selfie-obsessed addict (thanks, Instagram); the rise of Friendster, MySpace, and LiveJournal; and who should be accountable for the spread of misinformation on sites like Wikipedia. It’s a fascinating first-person history of the online world as we’ve lived it so far—“a hell that is fun”—reminding us of where we came from and where we might dream to go.

HERE Magazine

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The book was provided as an ARC via Netgalley for an honest review

This book features the following topics/genres – The Internet / Social Media

Publisher’s release date: 25 February 2020

The distinction between a “user” and a person is both evident and understated. Joanne McNeil makes it apparent from the beginning that the reference to a person as a “user” has both positive and negative connotations. This book is partially a journey towards understanding how and why this word is used in online communities. It is also a window into viewing the impact the term “user” has had on those communities and the people that created and inhabited them – people like you and me.

“Everybody has a trace of an ache—some eternal disappointment, or longing, that is satisfied, at least for a minute each day, by a familiar group and by a place that will always be there.”

The author takes the time to visit the Internet in its infancy. Some of the websites mentioned won’t even register with anyone born after the 90s. But for those of us a little older, it’s like taking a trip down memory lane. I vaguely remember the days of AOL, Napster, mIRC, Netscape Navigator. Many of these communities were frequented by users just as much as online communities like 4-Chan and Reddit are today. It’s interesting to see her view on these communities and how they came and went and were inevitably replaced by others. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the more recent communities are better (and in some ways, they can be a lot worse), but it’s fun to think back to more carefree times when the possibility of getting “doxxed” was never a thing.

The first two chapters of the book were harder for me to digest, and it wasn’t until the third chapter “Visibility” that I began to connect with the author, mainly through the “Friendster” pages. While I barely remember “Friendster” as an online community, the real-life events and details Joanne discusses in this chapter resonated on a personal level. This quote, in particular, is a good example;

“Then again, people fulfilled with their lives generally do not waste time on social media”

The quote above got me thinking about the social media interactions I do have and whether or not this quote relates to my own experience or anyone else’s for that matter. I guess, in a way, we are all seeking fulfilment of one kind or another, and nowadays, there are just so many ways to obtain it. Back then, it seemed like choices were a lot more limited as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr weren’t invented yet. But the point Joanne makes here is quite crucial. Everyone needs something. Everyone is searching for a way to make their lives better. Everyone needs communication and a sense of community. Everyone wants to belong. This chapter is well written and relatable and made me feel validated in my decision to review this book. As a reader, I looked for a little bit of myself in these pages and was lucky enough to find it.

“Blogging was a departure from the sanctitude and solitude of writing”

Reading about someone talking about how the term “blogger” and “blogging” came into existence is funny to me. It’s funny because I consider myself a “blogger” of sorts; I’ve worked as a freelance writer and even continue to blog on several platforms, including this one today. And the quote above is every bit the reality. Why write for just yourself when you can share what you think and feel with the whole world? Well, some people probably continue using private diaries online and offline, and I used to do this too. There is a lot that can be said for keeping your thoughts entirely private. Putting thoughts and feelings on the internet is never private, even when you choose to post anonymously. Someone somewhere can see it, has access to it and can do just about anything with it. It is never entirely yours. That in itself is something to think about.

The way that the book is segregated is essential to the flow of the book. Joanne uses her own experiences as a method of explaining many of the fundamental uses the internet has had and continues to have. And there are questions I found extremely relevant not only then but now such as has the landscape of what we consider to be “cyberspace” changed? And if so, how? Have we changed with it? Reading some of Joanne’s paragraphs brings the “idea” of what the internet is to life. It becomes a living, breathing thing capable of both growth and stagnation, just as we are. We are as much a part of the digital world as we are separate from it. For some of us, this is almost a co-dependent relationship.

In the following chapters, namely “Sharing” and “Community,” I made even more connections with the author, particularly since I use many of the social media communities she refers to here. I distinctly remember the “Tumblr” ban where all adult content was banned in 2018. I was online and present for the aftermath, which didn’t have any impact on my personal experience at all other than receiving a warning for reblogging an image of Adam Driver with his shirt off. You may be interested to know that the people and creators I was particularly connected to are still there today, and I now have less of a reason to use Tumblr Savior as a result of the 2018 ban. I consider this a definite positive but not all Tumblr users would agree. And this was just one of many real-world examples I connected with on a personal level.

My first impression of this book was that it was full of facts and information about digital super-companies that I already knew of and was not interested in pursuing as a topic. But that was naive of me. As I progressed through the book, I felt as though I was looking into a mirror. Reading a very personal account of how the internet has changed us as human beings while also experiencing Joanne’s journey through the years was enlightening. I think this is a significant book to read, particularly in the digital age. You may not connect with everything the author chooses to explore. However, if you’re a user of the internet (as most people are), particularly of social media, you will find this book is an open and honest view of life online and everything that entails including its historic beginnings. I will also add that if you are not someone who uses social media daily or someone who isn’t interested in how life online has progressed through the last 10 – 20 years, you may find this book a little outside of your scope of interest.

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This book is an exquisitely researched history of internet social networks as well as a critique of the emergence of surveillance technology on the internet. I found it to be a quick, yet evocative read—it's just technical enough without feeling at all dry. Joanne McNeil's personal anecdotes of early internet usage in the '90s are incredibly vivid and transportive.

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I really enjoyed this book by Joanne McNeil. It covers a wide range of social media platforms and topics including Gamergate, Wikipedia editing, Facebook, and more. It has several anecdotes both from the author and from others about the early days of social media and takes a look at early sites like Friendster, LiveJournal, and MySpace. I found the title, Lurking, to be a bit misleading as the text primarily focuses on users as active members on each of these sites and platforms. Nonetheless, it's a nice overview of the history and possible future of the many social media platforms we all commonly use today.

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I received a Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own.

Joanne McNeil takes the reader on a journey from a time when the internet was a new frontier to today. The landscape of the digital world was new to everyone. She explores how the web changed and, more importantly, how it changed us. Since the time we all sang along to the modem tones to carrying the world on our cellphones, people have changed the way we interact with both each other and the world around us. I did thoroughly enjoy the trip down the virtual streets I use to know.

This book explores how we went from being people online to being users. What was lost when the internet grew up? What was gained? Has the internet brought us together or separated us further?

It is refreshing to read a history to technology that isn't dry and a rehashing of well-known origins. While the big names make appearances, they are not the main story. We are.

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