Desconexión. Un viaje personal por internet

by Róisín Kiberd, Albert Fuentes (Translator)

Un importante grueso de la población mundial vive conectada a internet, formando parte de su rutina diaria. Esto genera ciertas situaciones nuevas y estados emocionales antes desconocidos. Algunos aspectos son de forma incuestionable positivos: optimiza la comunicación instantánea, tenemos acceso inmediata a una enorme cantidad de información e incluso facilita el trabajo desde un gran rango de lugares. A la vez, tampoco se puede ignorar que esta red genera insatisfacciones y ansiedades, incluso trastornos a una gran cantidad de gente.

¿Tiene sentido pasar tanto tiempo delante de una pantalla? ¿En qué medida nos perjudica la adicción a internet? Roisin Kiberd ha explorado e investigado múltiples aspectos de estas cuestiones. Trabajó en start-ups, ha escrito sobre subculturas de internet y ha testimoniado la mayoría de excesos provocados en nombre del progreso informático, llegando incluso a padecer algunos efectos en carne propia.

Con esta colección de ensayos, unidos entre sí para hilar un relato sobre el lado oscuro de la vida digital, Kiberd arroja sobre el problema una luz clara y poderosa.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Technology, Internet, Sociology, Irish Literature, Cultural

355 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2021

About the author

Roisín Kiberd's essays have appeared in the Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly and the anthology "Seizing the Memes of Production." Her writing on technology and culture has appeared in the Guardian, the Outline, Vice UK and Motherboard, where she wrote a column about internet subcultures. Her first book, the essay collection "The Disconnect, was published in 2021.

Reviews

[Raks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflexiones sobre el trabajo, las adicciones, las relaciones y el amor atravesados por la tecnología.

Me ha gustado mucho, aunque no me ha resultado un libro fácil de leer, emocionalmente hablando. No es muy recomendable si te sientes un poco sola y cerca de ambientes individualistas. Aún así, me ha alegrado el hecho de no verme reflejada en muchas dinámicas relacionales que aparecen en los ensayos del libro.

Son muchas cosas con las que me quedo, entre ellas:

"Es peligroso medir los sentimientos que despiertas en alguien en función de su comportamiento online, porque cabe la posibilidad de que no sea el amor lo que nos impulsa a seguir tecleando. Podría ser aburrimiento mutuo, o la soledad. Incluso podría ser la propia plataforma, porque las aplicaciones están hechas para que no paremos de usarlas."

[Cinzia DuBois · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the introduction incredibly entertaining and was really excited to dive into the collection. But my goodness I’m afraid I found them all incredibly dull. Her writing was so promising in the set up, but I honestly couldn’t care about anything she wrote about, which was such a shame. I just found each essay filled with exceptionally tedious details and the collection as a whole was a slog to get through. Evidently I’m in the minority, so take my review with a pinch of salt.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Róisín Kiberd's debut essay collection is a personal memoir of growing up "online" - from the days of dial-up broadband back when you couldn't make a phone call whilst someone was using the internet, to the present day where she is a 30-something whose job and personal life are all intrinsically linked to (and have been wholly shaped by) the internet and social media.

I found the essays about Mark Zuckerberg and Vaporwave to be one of the more enjoyable ones, and it was interesting to read about someone who was born the same year as me but whose life has been so heavily influenced by (both positively and negatively) the internet.

Thank you Netgalley and Serpent's Tail for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

[Ruan McGuinness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading in this late capitalist, quasi-cyberpunk milieux we find ourselves in. If Philip K Dick and Mark Fisher somehow had a daughter, who grew up in Dublin in the early 21st century and wrote a personal account of her relationship with the internet, I’d imagine it would resemble exactly this book.


Such a necessary depiction of the texture of life in the contemporary moment, particularly the way in which the internet seems to have alienated us from our essential humanity. To me this is the pertinent theme of our times. Rarely ever has a book I’ve read offered such an apt description of my own experience. So many thoughts I’ve had about these issues are articulated brilliantly on The Disconnect. I feel like Kiberd is way ahead of the curve on this, and I can’t wait for more.

[Gabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s odd to see these super online things talked about so coherently offline, but that’s what this book is. I especially enjoyed the essays on Vaporwave and Monster Energy.

[Chrystyphyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT ANDDDD ITS RELEVANT TO MY THESIS AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5. Although she has a very different life, I feel that my relationship with technology is 1:1 represented by the experiences she shares in this book. Yes, it is pessimistic and sometimes pretty grim. Still, this tone is only appropriate when loneliness is the problem that online technologies promise to solve, only to make it worse by alienating us more from one another, plus knowing that there is no escape.

At the risk of sounding gatekeeper, I think that the insights of some parts of the book have a way higher weight when you (the reader) have gone through your own personal journey of loneliness through the internet. As an example, the vaporwave chapter feels much more relatable when you had already spent many nights working alone in front of a screen until late, while listening to mallsoft and questioning yourself how you reached a point in which muzak, corporative jingles and sounds from empty (lonely) mall halls can make you feel relaxed.

[Jara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que librazo por favorrrrr

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Disconnect is, as its subtitle suggests, a 'personal journey through the internet', or a collection of interconnected personal essays about technology and culture. From personal experiences of using and working in social media (most notably as the social media presence for a cheese brand) to a list of vaporwave tracks, and from depression and insomnia to Mark Zuckerberg's bland outfits, Kiberd takes us on a funny and sad journey about living on the internet.

Being only a few years younger than Kiberd, this very much felt like a book aimed at people like me, who grew up using things like MSN Messenger. The style is one often found in the best online essays, combining disparate references and self-deprecating humour with deep looks at specific things (one of the essays is a very in-depth look at the energy drink Monster) and weird stories of existing in the modern world. I was hooked quite early on with references to Mad Men and Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism and the first section of the book was my favourite, with essays going through a dual personal and big scale history of the internet and looking at the figure of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's ethos (though I enjoyed the whole book).

I'm not sure what it says about me that the most insightful part of the book for me was the chapter about vaporwave, a genre of music I spend a lot of time thinking 'I should find out what that actually is' and never doing so (now I know!). The Disconnect does sit alongside a lot of the other tech-related reading I've done, both in terms of the personal side of books about social media and big tech companies and in terms of internet history and the impact on our lives (I feel it's a particularly good companion to Gretchen McCulloch's Because Internet, which looks at internet language and also the 'phases' of people on the internet).

Anyone who is fairly well-versed in internet culture and also likes questioning and reflecting on what these technologies are actually doing to our lives is likely to enjoy The Disconnect. It's tech writing infused with the personal side of the internet, and if that sounds like a selling point to you, you should read it. Anyway, I'm off to listen to Floral Shoppe.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having been in many of the same circles in the same time period in Dublin, Kilberd's accounts are amusingly accurate. However, they're surface-level and fatalistic, never offering any comfort to the reader that we are not all technologically doomed.

Kilberd also seems to treat herself as above the many tech workers she discusses within, despite writing at length about her own issues. They are universally rick-and-morty loving corporate drones indistinguishable from one another and consumable.

This series of essays present a view of the world where tech is toxic and unavoidable. The only 'hope' within is a throwaway line or two about reducing her screentime. "Like the blooding of vampires it cannot be undone".

It's not badly written and I certainly learned a few things or enjoyed moments of dark nostalgia, but its apocalypse-calling and dismal preachings need a reprieve. The internet has also a good side, connecting people, enabling creative content, etc and EU laws increasingly stem the worst of American tech capitalism.

[Nadene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read

This book couldn't have come at a better time. With our reliance on technology probably reaching an all time high, the author explores how we use it personally as well as collectively and looks at the various ways the rise of tech has changed our lives.

[George Orton · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has described so many feelings that I didn't know could be described :')

[Selam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for content but 4 stars for overall writing and how the topics are were discussed

All the best parts i wish had more content in it

the zuckerberg essay and the dating app (part 2) essay were fantastic

could have elaborated on recent vlogging /Instagram culture

Didn’t enjoy the Monster Drink or vaporwave essays but they were interesting, especially the lofi music analysis, but these sections felt longer than necessary

[джаймс X · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure - I'm friends with the author. However, the most salient bias is probably that a shared fascination with many of the topics these essays cover has driven many of our conversations over the years, so I am a natural audience for this material. I found the book un-put-downable and finished it over the course of two evenings. The flow when reading is excellent, and makes it an enjoyable experience despite the dark and weighty subject matter. Often, real but difficult to pin down connections between contemporary phenomena are deftly pointed to with subtle use of language.

It's also useful to be reminded of the central role the internet can play in creating anxiety and other mental health issues. I will be taking this as a reminder to try to better enforce my own partial digital disconnect.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not want to read this book. We vote on our monthly book club options, and I did not vote for this book. I fully expected not to enjoy it at all, let alone love it, let alone praise it as highly as I’m about to do. It’s stunning. It’s perfectly depressing. It’s insightful and joyful and sad and hopeful and apocalyptic. It’s very well written. It’s a delight. I love it so much.

[Brady Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book over the course of flights to and from my hometown this past weekend. It’s a sort of memoir of the internet with some meditations on corners of it or cultural elements of it that are important to the author. But it’s also about her life in a digitized era. More and more writers are finding better ways to explore how the internet in real life are one in the same and I think this book represents progress in that genre. There’s been a real slew of books about how the web has come to invade and define the way we live now.

Lots of good quotable moments. I may add some later.

A lot of writers end up focusing on the either this really personalized view of internet technology or they obsess on the technology. I think Kiberd has married those two things in a better way.

I drank a Monster energy drink on the trip home in her honor.

[Isart · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Mi mayor temor es vivir y morir sin haberme acercado jamás a otro ser humano. Antes pensaba que se trataba fundamentalmente de escribir, de sobrevivirme a mí misma encontrando un sitio en la tradición literaria. Ahora sé que se trata de la vida misma; valoro la conexión con los demás, la presencia, la confianza. Nacimos y morimos solos, pero la soledad, en la vida, dista de ser inevitable."

M'he identificat tant amb el viatge personal per Internet de la seva autora (va néixer el 1989 i jo el 1988 i hem recorregut molts dels mateixos espais online materials i emocionals), i la forma que te d'explicar i analitzar cada racó d'Internet és tan accurate i al temps tan interessant.

S'ha escrit i s'escriu moltíssim sobre la nostra existència a Internet, però sento que aquest assaig és un dels més importants que s'ha escrit mai sobre el tema.

[Mark Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to the internet, I'm old enough to have had a life BEFORE and AFTER. That provides perspective as the changes roll by.

Roisin, on the other hand, seems to have been born in 1989. She only has the AFTER. How we communicate, relate to each other and date are all driven by algorithms, optimised for engagement and financial gain, not our happiness.

I learned a lot from the book. Roisin is very honest about the impact on her life. The opinions too are backed up with lots of facts. Highly recommended!

[Cian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very interesting collection of essays on the internet and related subjects, from the days of dial up broadband to current dating app adventures. A very necessary work...just hoping for more from her now. We need writers like her to document what can at times be the Wild West of digital progress!

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fear sells. And Kiberd wants to upgrade from the online voice of a cheese to the online voice of his own brand. It's not that he has anything relevant to say. Actually this is the problem. It's simply because he wants to get his own brand, because he knows this is where the money is.

Or to rephrase that: the book is not an argument about ”the disconnect”. It is the manifesto for a new brand.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me he sentido muy reflejada con este libro refleja muy bien lo que es ser una chica en internet, si tuviera que ponerle una pega es que está escrito desde la perspectiva millennial y como genz siento que hay aspectos que podrían haberse tratado (como TikTok)y se podría haber profundizado, pero también entiendo que está baso en su experiencia, aún así es un libro excelente

[Ciara Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty grim but I think that's why I loved it? Completely accurate as a struggling Irish artist. The depictions of self-destructive habits & depression are very relatable if not a bit desperate. Definitely wouldn't recommend to the self-help girlies it's pretty pessimistic, but so am I 🤌🏻

[Shane Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of essays that provide an accessible and personalized glimpse into the heart of our ever growing dependency on the digital. Truly inspiring. I look forward to more from Kiberd.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved loved this. Roisin Kiberd speaks to all our lost, technologically-enslaved souls, with a funny, profoundly empathetic, honest voice. I really hope we get an updated edition soon to hear Kiberd’s thoughts on more recent emerging trends (i.e. the Meta verse).

[Niamh Keoghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some fantastic essays, a particular highlight is notes on vaporwave. Probably the best music journalism I've read this decade. The collection is incredibly bleak and is very candid in how it discusses mental illness, depression and eating disorders so proceed with caution and read on a sunny day

[IM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how much I identified with this book- the modern Irishness, the insomnia, the sleep podcasts, the online dating, the psych meds, the social media addiction and feeling increasingly alone and defeated. Although this book doesn't offer any solutions, it still feels hopeful.

[worm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt like I wanted to savor this book like box of chocolates but I ended up ironically binging it. The entire book emanates nostalgia and it feels like a vaporwave mixtape that I wish it had a B-Side.

[Ben Crowther · Rating 5 out of 5]

"An apocalypse is the same thing as eternity, a declaration of love, a curse, an impossibility, an act of hyperbole that reveals more about the present than the future."

"I worry about my wokeness, but I also worry about worrying about my wokeness, because what kind of solipsism is that?"

[Ben Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly interesting and absorbing at the time - I'd definitely recommend it on that basis. However, coming back across it when listing a batch of read books on GoodReads, I failed to really remember much that made an impact on me.

[Sibéal Davitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing.