Sanderson\u2019s initial presentation of her subject is positive. She differentiates among types of social media, observing that online platforms have \u201copened up new career opportunities,\u201d \u201cenabled people to connect,\u201d and allowed \u201cpeople to leave reviews of products or companies.\u201d China has its \u201cown versions\u201d of social media (there\u2019s no mention of censorship). The statement that algorithms are a \u201clittle like librarians\u201d is simplistic and misleading. Sanderson warns readers about some drawbacks, including peer pressure, deteriorating real-world social skills, cyberbullying, deepfakes, scams, and identity theft. The final section describes specific ways to use social media safely and what to do if you\u2019re a victim. The last spread outlines the principles of good digital citizenship. Despite some cautions, the book dances around serious issues like echo chambers, manipulation of the electorate, and radicalization through hate speech. Readers also aren\u2019t warned strongly enough about fake reviews or the improbability of influencing as a career, nor are they reminded that they are the product. The focus is on individual users\u2019 responsibility, with little attention to industry or government regulation. The writing is accessible; sidebars highlight key pieces of information, and chapter summaries provide easy takeaways. Portions of this book are repeated, sometimes verbatim, in Sanderson\u2019s Dealing With Cyberbullying (2026). <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sanderson\u2019s initial presentation of her subject is positive. She differentiates among types of social media, observing that online platforms have \u201copened up new career opportunities,\u201d \u201cenabled people to connect,\u201d and allowed \u201cpeople to leave reviews of products or companies.\u201d China has its \u201cown versions\u201d of social media (there\u2019s no mention of censorship). The statement that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}