Lurking
Layered
Insightful
Profound

Lurking How a Person Became a User

Joanne McNeil2019
A concise but wide-ranging personal history of the internet from—for the first time—the point of view of the user In a shockingly short amount of time, the internet has bound people around the world together and torn us apart and changed not just the way we communicate but who we are and who we can be. It has created a new, unprecedented cultural space that we are all a part of—even if we don’t participate, that is how we participate—but by which we’re continually surprised, betrayed, enriched, befuddled. We have churned through platforms and technologies and in turn been churned by them. And yet, the internet is us and always has been. In Lurking, Joanne McNeil digs deep and identifies the primary (if sometimes contradictory) concerns of people online: searching, safety, privacy, identity, community, anonymity, and visibility. She charts what it is that brought people online and what keeps us here even as the social equations of digital life—what we’re made to trade, knowingly or otherwise, for the benefits of the internet—have shifted radically beneath us. She is not interested in the fortunes being made or the specific technologies developed, but in the space we have made and the culture we have created. It is a story we are accustomed to hearing as tales of entrepreneurs and visionaries and dynamic and powerful corporations, but there is a more profound, intimate story that hasn’t yet been told. Long one of the most incisive, ferociously intelligent, and widely respected cultural critics online, McNeil here establishes a singular vision of who we are now, tells the stories of how we became us, and helps us start to figure out what we do now.
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Reviews

Photo of Andrew Louis
Andrew Louis@hyfen
3 stars
Feb 6, 2023
Photo of Taylor
Taylor@taylord
4 stars
Dec 15, 2022
Photo of Nicholas Hanemann
Nicholas Hanemann@nick_h
2 stars
Dec 20, 2021
Photo of Rachel Kwon
Rachel Kwon@kwon
4 stars
Jun 8, 2024
Photo of Ben Myers
Ben Myers@bendmyers
4 stars
Mar 20, 2024
Contemplative
Photo of Alberto
Alberto@a55555
4 stars
Dec 3, 2023
Layered
Profound
Insightful
Photo of Pratik M
Pratik M@pcmhatre
4 stars
Jun 26, 2024
Photo of kate
kate@katelucia
4 stars
Jan 21, 2023
Photo of Taylor Conacher
Taylor Conacher@taylorana
4 stars
Dec 21, 2022
Photo of Tiffany
Tiffany@scientiffic
2 stars
Sep 26, 2022
Photo of Garrett Jansen
Garrett Jansen@frailtyy
4 stars
Aug 17, 2022
Photo of luis martins
luis martins@luismrmartins
4 stars
Sep 29, 2021
Photo of K. Mike Merrill
K. Mike Merrill@kmikeym
4 stars
Sep 5, 2021
Photo of Gareth Kay
Gareth Kay@garethk
4 stars
Aug 12, 2021
Photo of Johanna Wellnitz
Johanna Wellnitz@johanna
3 stars
Jul 29, 2021
Photo of Brook
Brook@brook
5 stars
Jun 9, 2021

Highlights

Photo of Ben Myers
Ben Myers@bendmyers
Photo of Ben Myers
Ben Myers@bendmyers
Photo of Ben Myers
Ben Myers@bendmyers