Extremely Online

The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published Oct. 3, 2023 by Simon & Schuster.

ISBN:
9781982146863

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5 stars (1 review)

Acclaimed Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz presents a groundbreaking social history of the internet—revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off.

For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism.

By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. Lorenz documents how …

3 editions

To err is human. To forfeit the battle for the shortform creative video market to TikTok is Vine.

5 stars

A fast (but, at times, suprisingly in-depth) survey of the rise of user-generated content in the age of social marketing, "Creators", and influencers.

@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social shines a light on some familiar faces but also gives a voice and shows the work done by a lot of folks forgotten or ignored by the current narratives around the landscape of attention-seeking platforms, products, and people.

What ultimately sets this book apart from so many others that have also focused on the companies and products that shape our world today is that Lorenz examines the people behind the content, not the technology.

Worth a read.