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LikeWar
432 pages
A chilling, fast-paced tour through the modern digital battlefield where your smartphone is the ultimate weapon of mass manipulation.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like taking the red pill for the modern internet age. It moves with the brisk, propulsive energy of a techno-thriller, yet the chilling reality is that every terrifying scenario is already happening on the apps you use every day. The authors blend military analysis with pop-culture fluency, creating an atmosphere that is simultaneously fascinating and deeply paranoiac. You will find yourself looking at viral tweets, memes, and trending hashtags with a newfound sense of dread, realizing the invisible wars being waged for your attention. It is an eye-opening, urgent read that will delight tech enthusiasts, political junkies, and anyone trying to understand the dizzying, weaponized landscape of our hyper-connected world.
- Mood
- chilling
- tense
- eye-opening
- paranoiac
- Tone
- urgent
- analytical
- accessible
- alarming
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- weaponization of attention · death of objective truth · digital manipulation · modern psychological warfare · blurring of virtual and physical reality
- The writing
- Sharp, highly readable, and deeply researched, seamlessly blending military strategy with pop-culture fluency.
- The arc
- Begins with a fascinating exploration of digital culture before descending into a chilling realization of our collective vulnerability, ultimately leaving the reader with an urgent sense of responsibility.
- Who it's for
- News junkies, tech enthusiasts, and anyone who has ever felt a creeping sense of dread while scrolling through their social media feeds.
Content notes
- terrorism
- cyber warfare
- political manipulation
- real-world violence
- radicalization
About the book
"Two defense experts explore the collision of war, politics, and social media, where the most important battles are now only a click away.Through the weaponization of social media, the internet is changing war and politics, just as war and politics are changing the internet. Terrorists livestream their attacks, "Twitter wars"produce real-world casualties, and viral misinformation alters not just the result of battles, but the very fate of nations. The result is that war, tech, and politics have blurred into a new kind of battlespace that plays out on our smartphones. P. W. Singer and Emerson Brooking tackle the mind-bending questions that arise when war goes online and the online world goes to war. They explore how ISIS copies the Instagram tactics of Taylor Swift, a former World of Warcraft addict foils war crimes thousands ofmiles away, internet trolls shape elections, and China uses a smartphone app to police the thoughts of 1.4 billion citizens. What can be kept secret in a world of networks? Does social media expose the truthor bury it? And what role do ordinary people now play in international conflicts? Delving into the web's darkest corners, we meet the unexpected warriors of social media, such as the rapper turned jihadist PR czar and the Russian hipsters who wage unceasing infowars against the West. Finally, looking to the crucial years ahead, LikeWar outlines a radical new paradigm for understanding and defending against the unprecedented threats of our networked world"--
Description from Open Library.
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