The cover of “Digital Vertigo,” Andrew Keen’s latest book.Q. Do you have a Twitter account?
A. Yes, it’s @AJKeen.
But aren’t you against Twitter and Facebook?
Twitter, and my dependance on it, is part of the narrative of my new book. Twitter is a dependency, not a narcotic.
What about Facebook, do you have an account?
I gave up Facebook. I was embarrassed by some of the things people put up so I decided to close my account and I don’t miss it at all.
It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done online.
But Twitter is O.K.? I’m confused.
There is a balance to the way these tools are used and what we choose to share on them. As a writer, Twitter is imperative to my business. Any
writer who is not on Twitter should have their writing hands chopped off.
So what is your new book about?
We are being seduced by a new cult in Silicon Valley: the cult of social media. We are told we should reveal ourselves more and more on the network. While
we do this, as we sign up for more services like Path and Highlight, we share more and are entering a painful solitude.
Do you think there will be a backlash to Facebook and others?
We are already seeing a backlash. The way people feel about Facebook: The wealth. The dishonesty. The duplicity of our privacy. People are seeing that they are being turned into products on Facebook.
Why “Digital Vertigo”? Are you afraid of heights?
The book is called “Digital Vertigo” because I’m reminded a lot of Alfred Hitchcock’s themes
that showed that things that are too good to be true, usually turn around to destroy you. This is apparent with the free social sites online.
Can we find a balance of social media? It can’t just go away.
Yes. Of course. But people have to find their own balance though. I can’t tell them when to use Twitter or Facebook.
But I do want to try to remind people that whatever it means to be human is slipping away as we reveal more and more of ourselves on social networks.
This statement sounds a bit sad and depressing.
I don’t think it’s sad and depressing. I think it’s interesting. What Silicon Valley does really well is push the limits, but it’s up to the rest of us to push back a little.
How did we get to this point?
As we’ve heard, “data is the new oil,” and that’s where the value is. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are worth $100 billion because
he’s figured out how to get rich from our data. The new barons of the 21st century are the people with the data.
This book sounds different. It sounds like you’re genuinely worried about this.
I am concerned that whatever it means to be human is being undermined. This endless temptation to
broadcast ourselves, intimately, globally, to the world is ruining us. The majority of us don’t want to be sold and right now, with all of this data, we are being followed around the Web.
What’s next? Do we throw our hands in the air and so “Oh well?”
No. Our data online should be perishable. It should be like drawing something in the sand in the desert.
Facebook won’t do this, but others will and there are some of the smartest people I know working on new companies that focus on privacy.
How will these “private” companies make money?
People will pay for them. We don’t have a problem paying for things. People are learning that nothing is ever really free, so people don’t trust free products. The tragedy of the Web is the unthinking acceptance that free works. It doesn’t! The consequences have been very problematic. You have trashy products and
you have corrupted content.
Will you Tweet this article when I’m done with it?
Of course. Shamelessly.