Friends Followers And The Future

Download or read book Friends, Followers and the Future written by Rory O'Connor and published by City Lights Publishers. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There’s a revolution going on, as ever-accelerating developments in digital information technologies change nearly every aspect of how we live, work, play, do business and engage in politics. Share and share alike—the numbers say it all as billions of people worldwide flock to online media and use social networks to discover and spread news and information. In the process, ever-growing networks of “ordinary people” are using these powerful new tools to trim the influence long held by Big Business, Big Government and Big Media. No longer just passive recipients, participants in social networks now regularly make and break news while organizing civic and political actions that bypass censors, outpace traditional media, attract massive audiences and influence the rise and fall of brands, industries, politicians and even governments. In this insider’s look at how social media are transforming our world, Rory O’Connor explains the trends and explores what tech visionaries, media makers, political advisers and businesspeople are saying about the meteoric rise of the various social networks of friends and followers, and what they bode for our future. "Rory O'Connor is one of the smartest media guys around. He knows who's spinning, who's pandering, and who's putting money in his own pocket at the expense of logic, reason, and the public good."—Michael Wolff, Vanity Fair media critic "This is a timely book about a vital subject: How do we get information and is it reliable? With a 'cold eye,' author Rory O'Connor shows how traditional journalism cheapened its value by sabotaging its trust, and how the digital revolution wonderfully democratizes information yet often removes the journalistic curator, creating more noise, more ME and less WE news. If you want to understand the future of news, its opportunities and its pitfalls, read this book."—Ken Auletta, author and New Yorker media writer Rory O’Connor, co-founder of MediaChannel.org, is the author of Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio. He has won two Emmys and a George Orwell Award, among many other honors.

Download or read book Friends, Followers and the Future written by Rory O'Connor and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2012-04 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the impact online social networking has had on business, politics, media, and culture, and how it will affect the future.

Download or read book Followers written by Megan Angelo and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This dark, pitch-perfect novel about our dependence on technology for validation and human connection is as addictive as social media itself.” —People Magazine Orla Cadden is stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss, who has a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss’s methods are shady—and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can’t be wrong. Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. Despite her massive popularity—twelve million loyal followers—when Marlow discovers that her whole family history is based on a lie, she summons the courage to run in search of the truth. Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into upheaval. This darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection. “Terrific writing about terrifying ideas.” —Washington Post “An engaging confection wrapped around a thoughtful critique.” —USA Today “Dazzling.” —Time “Razor-sharp.” —Entertainment Weekly “Big Brother meets Ingrid Goes West.” —theSkimm “[An] intelligent page-turner.” —Wall Street Journal “Dark, witty, astute.” —Slate “Black Mirror fans are going to love Megan Angelo’s Followers.” —PopSugar “Engrossing.” —NPR “Fascinating.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Intricate and brave.” —Booklist (starred review) “Addictive.” —KirkusReviews (starred review)

Download or read book The Future of Us written by Jay Asher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Jay Asher, the bestselling author of THIRTEEN REASONS WHY - now a Netflix TV show - and Carolyn Mackey, comes a story of friendship, destiny, and finding love. What if you could see how your life would unfold just be clicking a button? It’s 1996 and Facebook isn't even invented. Yet somehow, best friends Emma and Josh have discovered their profiles, fifteen years in the future … and they’re not sure they like what they see. The more Emma and Josh learn about their future lives, the more obsessed they become on changing the destiny that awaits them. But what if focusing on the future, means that you miss something that’s right in front of you? ?

Download or read book Future You written by Frances Valintine and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it take to go from imagining a different life to creating one? Entrepreneur and educator Frances Valintine has spent her life trying to untangle why some people don't embrace change even when they know their future depends on it. Future You shares insights from Frances's own extraordinary career to show how breaking away from expectation and routine is integral to living a full and successful life. Frances inspires and empowers readers to make bold self-discoveries: to take risks, step off the conveyor belt, open your heart to chance, overcome self-doubt, foster generosity, pass less judgement, think originally, and lead with possibility. Your brain has an incredible power to get you to where you want to be. Your role is to let your brain know the destination, and to be brave enough to begin your future now.

Download or read book Moods of Future Joys written by Alastair Humphreys and published by Eye Books (US&CA). This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated edition including new color photographs and a new afterword looking back at the journeyAlastair Humphreys' around-the-world journey of 46,000 miles was an old-fashioned adventure: long, lonely, low-budget, and spontaneous. Cycling across five continents and sailing over the oceans, his ride took four years to complete, on a tiny budget of hoarded student loans. Here is the story of the first remarkable stage of the expedition. Just two weeks into the ride the September 11th attacks changed everything. All Humphreys' plans went out the window and, instead of riding towards Australia, he suddenly found himself pedaling through the Middle East and Africa and on toward Cape Town. This book recounts an epic journey that succeeded through Humphreys' trust in the kindness of strangers, at a time where the interactions of our global community are more confused and troubled than ever.

Download or read book What We Owe the Future written by William MacAskill and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Instant New York Times Bestseller “This book will change your sense of how grand the sweep of human history could be, where you fit into it, and how much you could do to change it for the better. It's as simple, and as ambitious, as that.” —Ezra Klein An Oxford philosopher makes the case for “longtermism” — that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. The fate of the world is in our hands. Humanity’s written history spans only five thousand years. Our yet-unwritten future could last for millions more — or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose to do today. In What We Owe The Future, philosopher William MacAskill argues for longtermism, that idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. From this perspective, it’s not enough to reverse climate change or avert the next pandemic. We must ensure that civilization would rebound if it collapsed; counter the end of moral progress; and prepare for a planet where the smartest beings are digital, not human. If we make wise choices today, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will thrive, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world full of justice, hope and beauty.