A review by goth
To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evgeny Morozov

4.0

After trying for quite some time to try and understand what Jaron Lanier wants to tell me about the internet and what it means for us, I gave up and turned to Morozov. He's also not immune to name-dropping quite some, but he mostly places them in a good context with patient explanations of how their work is relevant for his discussion. Explaining is what I really liked about this book: I understood the issue Morozov talked about, the ideas he criticized and the arguments he used while doing so. In that way, I can actually start thinking on my own whether I agree with him! (the fact that there is an exclamation mark is really sad)
I agree with a lot of his sentiments; particularly his defense of democracy as "it's never going to be as sexy as you all want to make it; unsexy and slow compromise is at the heart of this process" was surprising and from a different angle than I'd usually heard. The discussions of criminology and technology and extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation for behaving a certain way are still stuck in my head.
He may focus too much on the negative side in his book, but all his criticisms seem valid to me(there is an issue with personal attacks he is being criticized for that I haven't looked into).
An interesting perspective on technology and the impact it has on different aspects of our society.