Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, And Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz, 2023
If they did not (like Vine who refused to cater to Creators), the platform met its demise.
YouTube started as a dating site where people could post videos about themselves and their hobbies. Only men posted videos though and despite taking out ads on CraigsList to pay women to post videos, YouTube as a dating site concept did not take off.
Instead, it exploded into the video format of today where Creators vlog about their lives, drawing in millions of views and young subscribers.
Twitter rolled out the re-tweet, a concept allowing posts to go viral. Musical.ly started off as a platform to offer short 3-5 minute educational videos for students before founder Alex Zhu noticed that kids on his train were always listening to music or snapping selfies. So, he combined the two.
Musical.ly would eventually be purchased by ByteDance, which had launched a similar app to compete with Musical.ly and would be rebranded TikTok.
Facebook started off as a platform for friends and people you knew, but would evolve to remove privacy settings to act more like YouTube. It continues to evolve, following user trends as they move towards other platforms or outright purchasing competitors like Instagram.
Bloggers started off as outcasts where people who never really fit in would draw in views from many others who felt like they never fit in. It also becamse a place where people could be 'real' - like mothers. There is no information or data about giving birth, post-partum and raising a baby, so mothers had to rely on other mothers.
Social media allowed anyone with a phone to post photos on Instagram or post videos and shorts. It cut out the traditional media companies who controlled who got to make content.
For those willing to put up with the daily grind of producing content, millions could be made. But the toll and trolling from this forced a lot of Creators to quit.
The history of the internet/social media is fascinating and eye-opening - especially the power and views some Creators or Influencers have. I did not quite appreciate this new world of celebrity and millions that can come from the shameless self-promotion.
The book felt like reading a long article. I wish it had a deeper dive and analysis on certain topics but it did connect the dots to provide a comprehensive overview of the history of social media.
Rising Class: How Three First-Generation College Students Conquored Their First Year by Jennifer Miller, 2023
College and high school now provide support for these students, but transitioning into college can still be challenging.
There is so much privilege (like being able to afford thousands dollar Canadian Goose coats) that low income students who can not afford any winter coat can get lost.
The students profiled in this book include Briani and Connor of Columbia, and Connor's girlfriend Jacklynn, who plans to live at home and attend Ozarks Technical Community College before transferring to Missouri State University.
Although each student has compelling stories (Briani's parents own a Mexican restuarant and vote for Trump for his support on small business; yet he actively seeks to reject people like them from the U.S.; Connor's father died from his Opiad addiction while his mother is a recovering addict; Jacklynn's father is an alcoholic who is not in her lfe), the book fails to engage and goes deep.
The reporting on the impact of COVID - during their freshman year - is fascinating, but nothing new that has not been written about in newspapers. I wish the stories had gone deeper or perhaps told in less of a disjointed way where Connor and Jacklynn's story were told together while Briani's story was separate.
