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The Twittering Machine

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About this listen

In artist Paul Klee’s The Twittering Machine, the bird-song of a machine acts as bait to lure humankind into a pit of damnation. Leading political writer Richard Seymour argues that this is a chilling metaphor for our relationship with social media. Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies, desires and frailties into data, and returning them to us as a commodity experience.

Through journalism, psychoanalytic reflection and insights from users, developers, security experts and others, Seymour probes the human side of the machine, asking what we’re getting out of it, and what we’re getting into.

©2019 Richard Seymour (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd Media Studies Social Sciences

Critic reviews

“Richard Seymour has a brilliant mind and a compelling style.” (Guardian)

“A brilliant, urgent, game-changing intervention.” (China Miéville)
All stars
Most relevant
I found this book to be incredibly insightful and thought-provoking. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched. Even though the information gets quite 'heavy' in places, it is well worth the journey.

A very important book

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Very easy listen- the writer uses language very eloquently and it was pleasant to listen to. The topics are gripping and will stick with me for sure. Quitting facebook has done wonders for me and this book affirms why it was a good decision!

Nice

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This book was a scathing critique of the narrative surrounding social media, rather than what I thought to be a book about the science of social media

Commentary more than science

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