Book Review: LikeWar by P. W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking

What an extraordinary book this is! I am currently engaged in a love-hate relationship with social media. I love the ability to keep track of what is going on in the lives of the people I care about; I hate that this keeping track seems to be replacing actual human contact. I love the ease of knowing what’s going on in people’s lives; I hate the ease with which miscellaneous people I don’t want to know every detail somehow manage to glean it from things I put up to share with those I care about. I love that it’s harder to hide wrongdoing in an era in which everyone has a camera and a platform; I hate that it’s harder to define “wrongdoing” as a result because everything is now a-contextual and a glimpse is presented as “reality” and that I never know what is real and what is fake/manufactured for public viewing anymore.

I could go on and on, but won’t – chances are you know what I mean, and if you don’t, I won’t be able to convince you. That’s something else social media has taught me…

In a very thorough and detailed manner, Singer and Brooking examine the history of social media and its increasing influence on everything along the personal-public, social-political spectrum. It’s not only social bullying/warfare we need to worry about anymore; now it’s actual, martial bullying/warfare too – to an extent I wasn’t aware of, but now am with brutal clarity. This is a great and engaging read that pictures a horrifying yet excessively necessary picture of what the world is literally coming to these days. I think it should be required reading for everyone, since the authors make it clear that it is increasingly the case that everyone is affected by the insidious nature of this media-as-message.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.