Social Warming: How Social Media Polarises Us All - Paperback

by Charles Arthur (Author)

An impassioned exploration of the ways in which social media has manipulated us all

'Witty, rigorous, and as urgent as a fire alarm' Dorian Lynskey

'Cooly prosecutorial' Guardian

Nobody meant for this to happen.

Facebook didn't mean to facilitate a genocide.

Twitter didn't want to be used to harass women.

YouTube never planned to radicalise young men.

But with billions of users, these platforms need only tweak their algorithms to generate more 'engagement'. In so doing, they bring unrest to previously settled communities and erode our relationships.

Social warming has happened gradually - as a by-product of our preposterously convenient digital existence. But the gradual deterioration of our attitudes and behaviour on- and offline - this vicious cycle of anger and outrage - is real. And it can be corrected. Here's how.

Author Biography

Charles Arthur is a journalist, author and speaker, writing on science and technology for over thirty years. He was technology editor of the Guardian from 2005-2014, and afterwards carried out research into social division at Cambridge University. He is the author of two specialist books, Digital Wars and Cyber Wars.