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The Twittering Machine by [Richard Seymour]

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Richard Seymour

The Twittering Machine Kindle Edition

by Richard Seymour (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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In surrealist artist Paul Klee’s The Twittering Machine, the bird-song of a diabolical machine acts as bait to lure humankind into a pit of damnation. Leading political writer and broadcaster Richard Seymour, author of Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics, argues that this is a chilling metaphor for our relationship with social media. Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction-machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies, desires and frailties into data, and returning them to us as a commodity experience.

Through journalism, psychoanalytic reflection and insights from users, developers, security experts and others, Seymour probes the human side of the machine, asking what we’re getting out of it, and what we’re getting into.

Print length

270 pages
Language

English
Publication date

29 Aug. 2019
Reading age

18 years
File size

2875 KB
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Product description

Review

"What Susan Sontag did for photography, what Christopher Lasch did for the culture of narcissism, Richard Seymour has done for social media. I read it with a sense of recognition, and alarm."
--Adam Shatz, contributing editor at the London Review of Books

"One of our most astute political analysts."
--China Miéville, author of October

"A bracing tour through the social and political context and impact of Twitter and Facebook, exploring Gamergate to Isis to Trump's Twitter presidency. He recounts horrifying miseries--suicides on YouTube, rapes on Periscope, streamed shootings on Facebook--created by people radicalised, or tormented by online peers, craving celebrity--all pushed to extremes by algorithms and monetised by tech companies."
--Emma Jacobs, Financial Times

"The book is a thrilling demonstration of what such resistance can look like, by one of the most clear-sighted and unyielding critics writing today. We should all read it."
--William Davies, Guardian

"Richard Seymour has a brilliant mind and a compelling style. Everything he writes is worth reading."
--Gary Younge, author of Another Day in the Death of America

"A sophisticated critique of the age of social media."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Rather than wondering ponderously if this is 'cancel culture' or whatever, we might ask ourselves: Why were all these people tweeting? ... This is not a book with an accompanying TED Talk, a ten-step program, or One Weird Trick to Fix Everything. Seymour's pose here is that of a working analyst, not a confident diagnostician. He draws connections, he sketches notes toward a further diagnosis."
--Max Read, Bookforum --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Richard Seymour is a writer, broadcaster and socialist, currently based in London. He writes regularly for the Guardian, the London Review of Books, Jacobin and many other publications. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN : B07YM4N89C
Publisher : The Indigo Press (29 Aug. 2019)
Language : English
File size : 2875 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 270 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 223,916 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 87 in Media Studies (Kindle Store)
- 173 in Violence in Society (Kindle Store)
- 675 in Media Studies (Books)

Customer reviews:
75 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		16%
3 star		11%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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John Drumm Jr

Simply a must read. A damning analysis of our morbid acquiescence to the Pink Jesus of social media.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2020

Verified Purchase

I have *never* written an Amazon review before.

Yet here I sit, writing away, horribly aware of the irony this exhibits when considering the content of Seymour's fine book! His prose is easily read, yet offers a depth of communication that few non-fiction writers ever achieve; there is a flow to the subject matter that creates almost a "page turner" effect; the pathology that he illustrates is so relatable and familiar that one finds themselves rhythmically nodding away, pausing only to underline and asterix.

The highest praise I can give this book is to say that it stands alongside Mark Fisher's masterpiece, Capitalist Realism, in its ability to help explain to a confused mind (my own) how today's world is both screwing with us and screwing us up. (Fisher's perspective more from the socio-political and cultural; Seymour's from the socio-technological; they are fine companions.)

*I Click Like*

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mr. Ronald G. Brown

Nothing new to see here.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2021

Verified Purchase

I am going to copy a review from below and put it here because it summarises excellently how I felt about this book:

"Seymour strings together a series of observations about our digital anxiety and addiction. He waxes poetic and invokes the spectre of stochastic terror and narcissistic death to illustrate how well-read he is more than to advance a coherent argument. Entrancing prose that devolves into an exercise in scripturient excess" - Amazon Reviewer.

The only addition I would add is that by chapter 3 I thought "this feels like it was written by a Guardian author". Then I looked him up and to very little surprise I was right.

But in the end we have learned nothing new about social media or its pitfalls but we know that Mr. Seymour really wants you to know all of the very important books and poetry he has read. Save yourself some time and watch that well know documentary about social media on that well know streaming platform.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Peter Hughes

A Tale of Modern Slavery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2019

Verified Purchase

If you can tear yourself away from a digital screen for a few minutes, buy and read this. It might just save your life.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ipsissimus

An incisive critical analysis of contemporary digital culture and its affects and effects,

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 September 2019

Verified Purchase

Liked it all.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Arslan

MUST READ

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2020

Verified Purchase

EXCELLENT appraisal of our current situation. Must read. Can't say enough good things .

One person found this helpful

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Len Bappin

Fascinating, and brilliantly written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2020

This is a million miles from the "10 reasons you should delete your social media accounts" click bait nonsense you see on, well, social media. This is an incredibly well researched book that draws on so many sources and although alarming is very even handed - doesn't accept the easy answers.

Richard Seymour's style is compelling and entertaining to read. There are many short chapters (or sub chapters) a bit like Sapiens, which really helps you pause and reflect too.

It's a must read. Every year I give the best book I've read that year to about a dozen friends and family - we're up to August and this is definitely the front runner and will take some beating.

One person found this helpful

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