In Superbloom, Nicholas Carr takes a central metaphor for the way that mass communication technologies collide with human nature from the 2019 poppy #superbloom in Walker Canyon outside of Los Angeles. Initially drawing only a handful of influencers posing among the blooms, the response to the phenomenon quickly spiraled out of control, leading to descending hordes, off-trail natural spaces trampled, and a traffic officer struck by a car. Online condemnation and virtue-signaling ensued.

Returning often to this metaphor, Carr explores how digital media has rapidly achieved the opposite of its initial vision of harmony, connection, and democratization. Instead, it’s overwhelmed us with more information than our brains were made to handle, leaving us lonelier, angrier, and diminished in our ability to assess objective reality. And, Carr argues, this is nothing new. Across the age of mass media, human nature and cognition have consistently responded in surprising and not entirely positive ways to technological innovations in communication. From radio to email, we’ve generally assumed that more communication—faster, easier, more broadly available—is automatically better. However, these advances have never arrived without significant problems. The main difference when it comes to digital media is the unprecedented scale of the problems and the speed with which they’re eroding relationships, societies, and even our very humanity.

Superbloom is a compelling and fascinating book. I listened to it on audiobook, and narrator Jonathan Todd Ross does a superb job of driving the read forward with energy and understanding. That said, I’m eager to get my hands on a print or digital copy of the book, so I can give it a deeper, more focused read. This is a “thinky” book—the kind you want to spend some time with, considering the ideas it explores and making notes for further reading. And because <i>Superbloom</i> is relatively short (the audio clocks in at eight hours and change), a reread wouldn’t mean a huge detour from my TBR.

My thanks to NetGalley and RBmedia for providing me with a copy of <i>Superbloom</i> in exchange for my review.