Superbloom

From the author of The Shallows, a bracing exploration of how social media has warped our sense of self and society.

From the telegraph and telephone in the 1800s to the internet and social media in our own day, the public has welcomed new communication systems. Whenever people gain more power to share information, the assumption goes, society prospers. Superbloom tells a startlingly different story. As communication becomes more mechanized and efficient, it breeds confusion more than understanding, strife more than harmony. Media technologies all too often bring out the worst in us.

A celebrated interpreter of technology’s impacts on human life, Nicholas Carr guides the reader through the dark trends that have always shadowed progress: how telegrams disrupted diplomacy, how radio aided autocrats, how the Facebook feed sowed division, how AI now blurs reality and fantasy. With vivid examples from history, science, and politics, Superbloom unmasks a fundamental flaw in our perception of, and revolutionizes our understanding of, how media shapes society. It may be too late to curb the “superbloom” of information—but it’s not too late to change ourselves.