The great internet swindle: ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

The internet was meant to liberate and empower its users. But the real effect has been to create vast monopolies and turn us into victims, argues web sceptic Andrew Keen in his controversial new book The Internet is Not the AnswerDuring every minute of every day of 2014, according to Andrew Keen’s new book, the world’s internet users – all three billion of them – sent 204m emails, uploaded 72 hours of YouTube video, undertook 4m Google searches, shared 2.46m pieces of Facebook content, published 277,000 tweets, posted 216,000 new photos on Instagram and spent $83,000 on Amazon.By any measure, for a network that has existed recognisably for barely 20 years (the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993), those are astonishing numbers: the internet, plainly, has transformed all our lives, making so much of what we do every day – communicating, shopping, finding, watching, booking – unimaginably easier than it was. A Pew survey in the United States found last year that 90% of Americans believed the internet had been good for them. Related: The Internet Is Not the Answer review – how the digital dream turned sour Related: The internet is not the answer – Tech Weekly podcast Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #youtube video #facebook content #pew survey

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The great internet swindle: ever get the feeling you've been cheated?'


$40,000 Swindle Puts Spotlight on Literary Prize Scams

The organizers of at least five British awards received emails asking them to transfer prize money to a PayPal account. One of them paid out. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-04-16 17:53:34 UTC ]
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Autofiction is Cheating, and You Cannot Change My Mind

What am I supposed to do with autofiction? Where is it shelved, literally and mentally? Is it memoir or fiction? Pick a lane. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-04-16 10:36:00 UTC ]
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11 Great Middle Grade Science Fiction Comics Set in Space

Middle grade books in SPAAAAACE! Check out some middle grade science fiction comics set in space, including On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-04-13 10:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #tillie walden #science fiction


How can we better raise boys? A new book looks at where we’ve gone wrong — and how to fix it

In “To Raise a Boy,” Emma Brown explores the many influences that shape boys and why we need to rethink them. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-16 07:00:04 UTC ]
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Canceling My Book Deal Was the Best Career Move I’ve Ever Made

I started querying agents for my memoir, Negative Space, in 2012, after two years of writing and revising. I got a few rounds of passes, including several friendly rejections in which agents said they just didn’t “know how to sell” my book. I heard this refrain enough times that I started... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #negative space #electric literature #small press #book deal


We've proved we can change - let's keep going

It’s been almost a year since the industry made the switch from being predominantly office based to working from home and essentially living at work. Frankfurt meetings went from being in a packed rights centre or brightly coloured stall to being completely online via Zoom. London Book Fair... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-19 05:25:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #change - #book launches #living rooms #london book fair


The great unbowed

This week we reveal the small presses and independent bookshops that make up our regional and country shortlists for this year’s British Book Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-18 13:15:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #small presses #independent bookshops #british book


‘Sybille Bedford’ is a gossipy appreciation of an oft-overlooked literary great

Selina Hastings’s new biography delves into the life, loves and books of a brilliant, charismatic writer. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-17 07:00:00 UTC ]
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Melvin Burgess | 'Like a lot of white folks, I’ve been wary of writing Black characters'

Melvin Burgess’ Three Bullets, which interrogates themes of brainwashing and the far-right, will be released this summer alongside a 25th-anniversary edition of the author’s pioneering YA novel Junk.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-11 21:15:24 UTC ]
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Clare Weze | 'It’s only latterly I’ve been making the characters whatever [I want them to be]'

"I like the hybridity of literature and science. They belong together, and they certainly belong together in my head,” says Clare Weze, a trained scientist whose début novel, The Lightning Catcher, combines her love for science with her skills as a fiction writer. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-11 17:35:36 UTC ]
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8 Great Queer Science Fiction Books

Find some immersive, out-of-this-world stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters in these excellent queer science fiction books. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-02-02 11:32:00 UTC ]
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Hodder acquires Gannon's manifesto for staying human on the internet

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired (Dis)Connected: How to Stay Human in an Online World by podcaster and author Emma Gannon.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-01 17:49:30 UTC ]
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Erin Kelly | 'In terms of plotting, it’s the hardest book I’ve ever written'

"My policy around this book is to say as little as I possibly can, in case I blow the twist!” says Erin Kelly, only half-joking, during our conversation about her latest psychological thriller, which does indeed contain a central twist so ingenious that this reader gasped out loud—and not just... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-29 09:32:52 UTC ]
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A call for another Great Migration, this one in reverse

Charles M. Blow's "The Devil You Know" argues that African Americans should return to the South. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-29 07:15:37 UTC ]
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Today in cool internet passion projects: the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

If you’re on the hunt for new literary rabbit holes, today is your lucky day. The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, created by lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower (a former editor of both the OED and Random House Dictionaries) is “a comprehensive quotation-based dictionary of the language of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-27 16:14:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #historical dictionary #science fiction #random house


25 Great Book Reviews From the Past 125 Years

To celebrate the Book Review’s 125th anniversary, we’re dipping into the archives to revisit our most thrilling, memorable and thought-provoking coverage. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-25 16:00:20 UTC ]
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Wattpad has been sold to Naver, Korea’s leading internet platform, for $600 million.

Some news for self-published writers: this week, Publishers Weekly reported that Naver, Korea’s leading internet platform, is acquiring Wattpad for over $600 million in cash and stock. For those who aren’t among the 90 million people that used Wattpad in 2020, or who don’t have any fanfiction... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-22 18:51:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #$600 million #self-published writers #publishers weekly


The ‘Great Gatsby’ Glut

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel about America and aspiration is now in the public domain, so new editions, as well as a graphic novel and a zombie adaptation, have gotten the green light. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-14 18:59:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #great gatsby #scott fitzgerald #public domain #green light #graphic novel


If you miss visiting the library, try the Internet Archive’s new virtual browsing tool.

It’s been a bad year for libraries and those who love them. Despite some interesting tech innovations (we could have been cleaning our books with UV rays this whole time!), many temporarily reopened libraries are closing again due to surging COVID numbers and COVID exposures, and many other... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-11 18:26:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #internet archive #bad year #uv rays #libraries