Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

By: Jaron Lanier

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now is a timely call-to-arms from a Silicon Valley pioneer.

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 his important new audiobook, Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms behind before it’s too late.

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 towards richer and fuller way of living and connecting with our world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Jaron Lanier (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Narrator Oliver Wyman brings his full complement of vocalizations to this polemic on social media and what it is doing to us. His cadence and delivery are spot-on...." (AudioFile Magazine)

Great topic, but too much of authors politics.

It's unfortunate that with such an intriguing topic, the author kills his own message with him anti-Trump, anti-conservative messages. Does EVERYTHING a liberal does have to tie in Trump? Jesus, all I wanted was to hear/read about the shadyness of behavior modification as I am detaching as well, but I get 5 hours of political behavior modification.

A good message

Always tough to take advice from a white guy with dreadlocks,, but overall very good message with supportive details. I think everyone should read. Part of it comes off a little bit like the author was just upset that his preferred candidate didn't win the 2016 election, but still provides good points for why social media may have influenced it. Social media has definitely has taken over most people's lives and without a doubt it would be healthy to take a step back and delete your accounts, just for a while at least. Don't freak out, but Google is watching you 🧐

Very Educational!

loved it! finished it very quickly. everyone should listen, especially if you have kiddos!! enjoy

If you can handle the truth, this is for you.

If you can handle the truth, this is for you. It's an eerie and unsettling truth. but thankfully it's easy to take action to alleviate it.

I had already guessed…

That I should delete my accounts that brought me nothing but stress, but I didn’t realize all of what was going on behind the black curtain.

Important

I think this is a very important read for our time. The information and topics which are incredibly complex are delivered in a very concise and approachable way.

Interesting

Positive and intelectualy stimulating. a b c d e f g h i j k

Great points but a bit political.

I would recommend this book/audiobook to anyone sitting on the fence with regards to weather they should remove their social media accounts.

On the downside, the book gets a bit political at times and the authors opinions shines throu a bit too much for my liking.

Informative and thought provoking. Wish there wasn’t profanity.

The performance was great. Very well read. The actual book itself is informative and very thought provoking. I wish there wasn’t profanity. One chapter in particular was rife with it. Also the worldview of the author had some issues but did not detract from the overall usefulness of the book.

Worth the time

I enjoyed the arguments presented by the author. It was very informative and interesting. The book explains how marketing/advertising works; consumer data is collected and used to make consumers buy stuff or modify behavior.
The only problem with this book is the fact that it overlooks the fact that consumers also use social media to promote themselves and their businesses. Many people don’t actually emotionally invest in social media; instead they use it as a tool to reach their potential customers.