So it’s not like these platforms can’t go in multiple directions. I definitely am not blind to all the good that the internet has caused, like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. Is there a commonality between those groups that seems sound?Įxtremism of all kinds, as you point out, the internet disproportionately amplifies that stuff. In “Antisocial,” you mention a litany of hate groups that thrive on the internet. For all of the event pages and family reunions that it has facilitated, it also makes it very easy for hateful folks to also find like-minded people. The internet seems like an eight sided sword. I didn’t want to excuse it, but I did want to understand it in order to make sure we can combat it. I felt that there was more to the story than just accurately saying, “these are bad people.” I wanted to see how they were doing it and and frankly, I just think we can’t inoculate ourselves against this stuff unless we understand it at a narrative level. So I didn’t want to just diagnose that they were bad. And surprisingly, a lot of them said yes. And I wanted to go to the source and talk to people who were doing that for a living, professionally pumping out toxic memes and misinformation and bigotry, and see if I could just watch them do it and sit over their shoulder as they did. Basically, I was seeing that, leading up to the 2016 election and before that, the internet was destroying our society in many ways.
Instead, it’s a descriptive narrative of people that are sometimes frankly, darkly comedic and pathetic, sometimes mediocre, sometimes really demonic and successful at what they do. It’s not a 400 page screed saying that the internet is bad and here’s why.
What I was after was something a little bit more detailed and textured and descriptive. I also didn’t want to just go and diagnose where all the bad people are because I think it’s pretty easy for us to see where the bad people are. I have a perfectly nice family that I would rather be spending time with. Jill Hopkins: What piqued your interest in this online world?Īndrew Marantz: I didn’t want to just go out masochistically and spend three years with the worst people I could find. In “Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation,” Marantz weaves these two worlds together to create a sweeping, unsettling portrait of today’s America - both online and in real life.Ĭheck out our interview with the author, who shares his findings while observing the inner workings of the online world, as well as what we can expect ahead of the 2020 election. For several years, New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz has been embedded in two worlds: The world of social-media entrepreneurs, and the world of the people he calls the gate-crashers.
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