The Hype Machine, Sinan Aral
The Hype Machine, Sinan Aral
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The Hype Machine
How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--and How We Must Adapt

Author: Sinan Aral

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Unabridged: 14 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/15/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A landmark insider’s tour of how social media affects our decision-making and shapes our world in ways both useful and dangerous, with critical ideas on how to protect ourselves in the 2020 election and beyond
 
MIT professor Sinan Aral isn’t only one of the world’s leading experts on social media—he’s also an entrepreneur and investor, giving him an unparalleled 360-degree view of the technology’s great promise as well as its outsize capacity to damage our politics, our economy, and even our personal health. 

Drawing on two decades of his own research and business experience, Aral goes under the hood of the biggest, most powerful social networks to tackle the critical question of just how much social media actually shapes our choices, for better or worse. Aral shows how the tech behind social media offers the same set of behavior-influencing levers to both Russian hackers and brand marketers—to everyone who hopes to change the way we think and act—which is why its consequences affect everything from elections to business, dating to health. Along the way, he covers a wide array of topics, including how network effects fuel Twitter’s and Facebook’s massive growth to the neuroscience of how social media affects our brains, the real consequences of fake news, the power of social ratings, and the impact of social media on our kids.

In mapping out strategies for being more thoughtful consumers of social media, The Hype Machine offers the definitive guide to understanding and harnessing for good the technology that has redefined our world overnight.

This audiobook includes a bonus PDF of figures and graphs.

About The Author

Sinan Aral is the David Austin Professor of Management, Marketing, IT, and Data Science at MIT; director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; and head of MIT’s Social Analytics Lab. He is an active entrepreneur and venture capitalist who served as chief scientist at several startups; co-founded Manifest Capital, a VC fund that grows startups into the Hype Machine; and worked closely with Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, WeChat, and The New York Times, among other companies. He currently serves on the advisory boards of the Alan Turing Institute, the British National Institute for Data Science in London, the Centre for Responsible Media Technology and Innovation in Norway, and C6 Bank, Brazil’s first all-digital bank.

Reviews

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on August 22, 2023

A landmark insider’s tour of how social media affects our decision-making and shapes our world in ways both useful and dangerous, with critical ideas on how to protect ourselves in the 2020 election and beyond. MIT Professor Sinan Aral isn’t only one of the world’s leading experts on social media -......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on November 15, 2020

Holy research, Batman! This book is jam-packed with the newest information about social media - how it grew, how it affects us, and how it can be altered. Aral proposes a lasting framework to analyze social media and realize its promise while avoiding its perils. Important topics discussed in this bo......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on December 04, 2020

I picked this up because, like for everybody else, social media is a big part of my day to day experience, and Sinan Aral, through careful empirical work investigating causal effects on social networks, has developed a reputation as someone who has put serious thought into how they actually work, an......more

Goodreads review by Chris on September 22, 2020

This is by far the most comprehensive book on the challenges we face in the age of social media. I’ve read many books on the topic, and this MIT professors cites more legitimate research than any other book I’ve read. The last chapter with the challenges and solutions was phenomenal as well.......more

Goodreads review by Rana (This City That Book) on May 15, 2023

This book is not a book about social media – not solely at least. It’s a book that delves into sociology, politics, psychology and tech. A truly fascinating, eye-opening and bordering on terrifying even read that is very well written and researched by an MIT professor of Management, Marketing, IT, a......more

Quotes

“Eminently relevant . . . [The Hype Machine] offers hope that we can re-engineer social media to better serve society.”—New Scientist

“A timely and far-reaching book of great interest to anyone concerned with building a healthy public sphere in the twenty-first century.”—Zeynep Tufekci, author of Twitter and Tear Gas

“What Sinan Aral has achieved with his new book The Hype Machine is probably the most comprehensive and best-structured presentation of social media’s effects based on existing scientific studies and collective experience.”—The Y Circus
 
“The scenario Aral describes should scare any technology leader, user of social media technology, or citizen within a democracy. . . . This book is worth reading to understand the sophistication of social media analytics alone.”—Myles Suer, CMS Wire

“This is the most important book of the year! Our friendships, economy, and society now depend on billions of social media connections, and no one on the planet understands them better than Sinan Aral. . . . A lively, engaging masterpiece.”—Erik Brynjolfsson, bestselling co-author of The Second Machine Age

“In a sea of books about social media, this is the one to read. Aral understands the new social age like no one else, and The Hype Machine offers the single best examination of how social media works and how we can make it better.”—Clint Watts, author of Messing with the Enemy

“An immensely interesting, informative, and provocative look at the biggest technological questions of our time, and the future of our democracy.”—Eli Pariser, bestselling author of The Filter Bubble

“The Hype Machine is a riveting story of social media’s impact on how we live. Part spy novel and part science thriller, this book is an essential guide to ensuring our digital future.”—Jonah Berger, bestselling author of Contagious

“A breathtaking journey through the economics, technology, and behavioral psychology of how we can capture the promise of social media and avoid its peril.”—Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler and a Time Person of the Year for 2018

“Full of rigor and insight, The Hype Machine tackles some of the most pressing policy questions of the Digital Age while keeping you on the edge of your seat. . . . A must-read for policy makers, business executives, and parents alike.”—DJ Patil, former U.S. chief data scientist

“In this meticulous dissection of social media, Aral gives us a much-needed framework for understanding what happened in the 2016 election, and what will likely happen again if nothing changes.”—Scott Galloway, bestselling author of The Four

“A useful, data-rich analysis of how we use social media—and how it uses us.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Aral takes readers on a wild journey to explore the role of social media in our lives. [The Hype Machine is] timely for readers interested in important issues, such as data ethics, privacy, platform policies and regulations, the role of social media tech giants in our lives, and how these tools impact consumers’ behaviors.”—Library Journal

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