Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Having read (and loved) Anna Wiener's 'Uncanny Valley' earlier this year, I nevertheless found her writing somewhat lacking when it came to making a rounded critique of the tech industry. But where Wiener missed, Kiberd strikes with devastating clarity.
This is a smart, timely, honest look at how the internet has changed - and continues to change - our relationship with each other and the world around us. As can only be appropriate in a memoir where the social media-centred self is king, Kiberd delivers a state-of-the-nation address which may offer a way out of all this tech-induced loneliness. Highly recommended.

Róisín Kiberd's debut essay collection is a personal memoir of growing up "online" - from the days of dial-up broadband back when you couldn't make a phone call whilst someone was using the internet, to the present day where she is a 30-something whose job and personal life are all intrinsically linked to (and have been wholly shaped by) the internet and social media.

I found the essays about Mark Zuckerberg and Vaporwave to be one of the more enjoyable ones, and it was interesting to read about someone who was born the same year as me but whose life has been so heavily influenced by (both positively and negatively) the internet.

The Disconnect is, as its subtitle suggests, a 'personal journey through the internet', or a collection of interconnected personal essays about technology and culture. From personal experiences of using and working in social media (most notably as the social media presence for a cheese brand) to a list of vaporwave tracks, and from depression and insomnia to Mark Zuckerberg's bland outfits, Kiberd takes us on a funny and sad journey about living on the internet.

Being only a few years younger than Kiberd, this very much felt like a book aimed at people like me, who grew up using things like MSN Messenger. The style is one often found in the best online essays, combining disparate references and self-deprecating humour with deep looks at specific things (one of the essays is a very in-depth look at the energy drink Monster) and weird stories of existing in the modern world. I was hooked quite early on with references to Mad Men and Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism and the first section of the book was my favourite, with essays going through a dual personal and big scale history of the internet and looking at the figure of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's ethos (though I enjoyed the whole book).

I'm not sure what it says about me that the most insightful part of the book for me was the chapter about vaporwave, a genre of music I spend a lot of time thinking 'I should find out what that actually is' and never doing so (now I know!). The Disconnect does sit alongside a lot of the other tech-related reading I've done, both in terms of the personal side of books about social media and big tech companies and in terms of internet history and the impact on our lives (I feel it's a particularly good companion to Gretchen McCulloch's Because Internet, which looks at internet language and also the 'phases' of people on the internet).

Anyone who is fairly well-versed in internet culture and also likes questioning and reflecting on what these technologies are actually doing to our lives is likely to enjoy The Disconnect. It's tech writing infused with the personal side of the internet, and if that sounds like a selling point to you, you should read it. Anyway, I'm off to listen to Floral Shoppe.