Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence and Power on the Internet Paperback – 5 Oct. 2023

Extremely Online is an interesting and in-depth account of the rise of social media and influencers/creators.It has an extremely US-centric view, though that’s perhaps understandable.Its flaw, however, is a lack of analysis as to how any of this has meaningfully affected the world, and what it means for the majority of people who aren’t hugely popular online.Should everyone attempt to become a poster/creator and build their own ‘brand’ (🤮)? Or is it fine (or perhaps even good/bad) to disconnect from social media? What’s the future of social media and how will it continue to evolve? Etc.Sadly, none of these questions are properly addressed, save for a few short pages towards the end of the book. For the most part, this book is simply a timeline of events. That’s interesting - especially for a someone old enough to have lived through it all - but I also wanted more.All things considered, Lorenz is an engaging writer and the book kept my attention all the way through. However, it also left me with a lot of unanswered questions, and felt slightly unsatisfying as a result.

A tour de force history of how algorithms, incentives and social trends shaped the internet culture of today. Well written and fun to read.

Taylor Lorenz’s EXTREMELY ONLINE presents the history of social media in ways that help the reader to connect with the important concepts. For instance, the book helped me better understand the term “gatekeeping,” how traditional media institutions and people with power are perceived as holding back information. Today, GenZ perceives people who don’t gatekeep as being more authentic and transparent.Lorenz’s chapters on blogging are particularly strong. “Mommy Bloggers” had a huge influence on the current culture of sharing one’s pain. Interestingly, a lot of the original Mommy Bloggers were considered to be “selling out” if they put up banner ads on their sites. That is quite a transition from the mom influencers who thrive today on platforms like Instagram. Nobody bats an eye today at those large brand deals, which suggests how the culture has changed.When it comes to newer social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok, Lorenz includes poignant descriptions of creator burnout. Creators struggle with the constant need to produce content, and the “winner take all” environment of social media. There also seems to be a certain bloodlust for tearing down creators, Lorenz notes. Hopefully we can return to what made the internet compelling in its younger years—starting by dialing down the toxicity.

A recap of the social media landscape over the last twenty years, and how people engage with the changing tech. Main takeaway seems to be that it is creators who find innovative ways to exploit new tech, while those who design it struggle to understand how their vision is being challenged and changed.Nice quote at the end:"We want our existence validated, and increasingly, an online presence is the measure of that validation."

I'm impressed by the depth of Ms. Lorenz's writing, though I suspect 20 years down the road the contents might be seen as being overly granular. If it stated a particular hypotheses, it could be a PhD Thesis, given the huge number of footnotes. Overall, I would say the tone of the book in political terms, judging neither the left or right being morally superior. One final thought - I can see a revision with an addendum covering the chaos resulting from the Elon Musk Twitter acquisition, something that's not a problem for an eBook.

Taylor Lorenz has lived on the internet and wrote it all down here in this well researched and often firsthand account of what's changed in the last 10-15 years for everyone.If you know it all well, then this book allows you to relive it like a yearbook. If you don't, it's a necessary overview and primer for how we got to here.The barriers and gatekeepers fell away, creators built brands through direct relationships to their audience, and innovated their way to income on ever-changing media properties they didn't own.Taylor brings you along this journey, with mini-profiles of the major and minor characters alongside tech-explainers that show she knows what she's talking about.If anything, I wish the book were longer so she could go deeper into the creator stories that she has to stay surface-level on to get through everything she has to cover.