Hype : How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet—and Why We're Following

by Gabrielle Bluestone

Drawing from scientific research, marketing campaigns, and exclusive documents and interviews, Vice reporter Gabrielle Bluestone delves into the irresistible hype that fuels our social media ecosystem, whether it’s from the trusted influencers that peddled Fyre or the consumer reviews that sold Juicero. A cultural examination that is as revelatory as it is relevant, Hype! pulls back the curtain on the manipulation game behind the never-ending scam season—and how we as consumers can stop getting played.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, Audiobook, Sociology, Adult, Pop Culture

Unknown Binding

First published April 6, 2021

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are interesting stories and relevant takeaways re: social media, fake news, and the lies told online, but ultimately the book felt disorganized and unrefined.

[Lirazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

I guess I'm the odd one out: I thought this book was a great premise pretty badly (or maybe just mediocre-ly) executed.

We need to have more discussions about how social media is screwing with our heads, our post-truth society, the phenomenon of influencers and our obsession with "authenticity" as a commodity. We are living in a world of grifters, of intentional blindness to facts, of obsession with surface instead of substance, of performative "living." This book promised to explore that world--and explain why it's so very addictive. So I was so ready to love it. But I really didn't, and I'm unsure of whether that's because this is an ARC and there's still a lot of editing to be done before it's published or if it's just a weakness of Bluestone's writing.

The book uses the frame of the Fyre Festival debacle to explore the whole world of internet hype--an approach that could have worked. But I was unimpressed by the writing. I don't know if the book just hasn't been line-edited yet or what, but the prose lacked clarity. I felt like the narrative jumped back and forth through time, buried the lede, didn't explain things in enough detail, and jumped abruptly from one topic to another. I really struggled with it on a paragraph level sometimes. These felt like things that should have been fixed before the book got to the ARC stage. And I don't think that it actually does explain why "we're following" as the title claims--but that is probably the fault of the publisher for choosing that title and making that claim. It's like a bad headline that doesn't match the article that was actually written.

A few things that really bugged me that I am almost certain will be fixed before publication. 1. The lack of foot/endnotes; at several points, references were made to "studies" or "research" that had me going, "Okay, I need a citation and I need to read the original source to make sure it really said what Bluestone says it said because I'm skeptical.” I guess I'll have to borrow the published edition from my local library so I can follow up on sources. 2. The conclusion, which addresses the Covid pandemic, felt incomplete. It's entirely possible that it is incomplete--that more will be added to it before publication. If so, I rescind these criticisms.

It's less clear to me whether the other thing that really irked me will be fixed: Bluestone would reference something--an event, a person--and not explain or give context. I mean, I know who Elizabeth Holmes is because I am the kind of person who listens to podcasts about that sort of thing. But there are many, many people who would have no idea who she is, and yet Bluestone references her and then doesn't actually explain who she is until a later chapter. Or she makes several references to Caroline Calloway throughout the book, but again doesn't explain who that is until one of the last chapters. That sort of thing happens multiple times throughout the book, and it left me reeling.

On the positive side: Bluestone is clearly extremely knowledgeable about all the details of the Fyre Festival debacle. I am truly impressed with her investigation and information-gathering. She spoke to an impressive number of insiders and seems to have tracked down every detail of Fyre Festival operator Billy McFarland's (many) schemes and scams. Frankly, I think she should have just written a forensic breakdown of McFarland's crimes instead of trying to say larger things about the internet as a whole.

Basically, the edition I read felt like a first draft. If someone handed me this manuscript, I would say, "There's probably a really solid book in there somewhere once you get it cleaned up." And maybe it will be vastly cleaned up before it's actually published! Maybe missing segues will be inserted so that it doesn't abruptly pivot from one topic to another. Maybe the conclusion is going to be expanded and fleshed-out. Maybe greater context will be provided. Of course the technical issues (which I'm not even addressing here) will be addressed by the copy editor. But the book as I experienced it was lackluster and undermined by a lack of editorial attention.

Clearly most of the other people who have read it and written reviews found it a lot more worthwhile than I did. I'm not discouraging anyone from reading it. In fact, I really may check it out from my library and see if I misjudged it. I would love to pick up the published edition, scan through it, and see that it's actually a good book. We'll see!

[Sandra]

I can’t give this book a rating. It had some really good and interesting parts, and is probably an important and good book for many people to read, but i think I’m not really one of them.
This book talks about why “we” follow influencers. But I don’t. I thought this would help me understand why people do, or better yet, expose some more subtle and deeper subterfuge that happens online. For the most part, it did neither. It focused too much on Billy McFarland (of fyre festival fame) and things that I don’t desire. It made me even more disgusted and incredulous at the things people apparently want, and the level of dishonesty and money floating around for that, but didn’t really make me understand it any more.

I think for some people, this book might expose things they don’t realize or want to think about (just how very fake those things you see from the kardashians and others are, how actually bad and targeted the whole thing is, and just what it is they’re seeking by following them). But I don’t know.

This book did give me one thing: I often worry about my level of social media use, knowing it can be bad for mental health and perception of reality (I’m on fb and Twitter, and here in goodreads. I also have an Instagram account that I check every couple of months or so). Reading “Hype” let me know I’m probably ok.

(Edited to add: I would recommend certain sections of this book to a lot of people. Pages 175-205 (the second half of chapter 4) has some great tidbits about social media addiction and pre-social media influencers, and the last 2 chapters are mostly interesting branching out into why this is a wider problem than fashion and money. There are also good bits scattered throughout, so a skim or fast-read of the whole thing is likely to reveal something interesting or new to just about anyone).

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this book. I found the basic message that using ‘influencers’ and other powerful people to promote events or products without clearly telling someone watching or listening that ‘This is a Paid Endorsement’ is a huge problem. That is the hype the author speaks about. Also, in all industries, but especially the technology industries, ‘Fake it to you Make It’ mantra, is fairly widespread and accepted. So much of the reviews and followers we accept as correct figures are either completely fake, made up accounts or employee generated, or paid endorsements. Last, we are just too tied to our phone and devices using Social Media constantly where it is addictive. Constantly, checking in, posting pictures, and comparing to others is problematic.

That said, a return to taking a day or two and thinking things through before jumping to pay huge fees for a new and exciting event or worse actually investing in products and events is something that we all need to do more. This does not let people breaking the law and committing fraud completely off the hook or receiving very little jail time for egregious illegal behavior ok. Much more oversight is needed.

My biggest problem was that this book really was about what I described above and the main example used was the Frye Festival and Billy McFarland’s activities was excessive. It was such a huge part of the book. The author was an Executive Producer of the Netflix documentary, Frye. She is knowledgeable here, but almost all the info she writes I am well aware of. She also using the Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos Founder as an example. The well received book, Bad Blood was published 5/21/18. I had read about this scandal about 4 years prior in Vanity Fair. Another example was Anna Delvey, who posed as an Heiress. I read her book that a woman conned by her wrote, called My Friend Anna, Published 7/23/19. So, none of these examples were about new events. This information was widely known. I really wish the author used more current examples. She did use some, but not enough.

Still, a book worth reading and thinking about the message. Otherwise, we can crack down on this illegal activity and should. However, the author is correct. We are not buying the products, we are taken in by the person selling them. If we disregard all intelligent thought and get excited because we are going to an event and actually think Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber, and Bella Hadid are going to be partying with us, it really is time to think again and move on.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole book is poorly organised. McFarland’s Fyre story was presented in 8 long chapters with lots of irrelevant details. The rest of the points were sprinkled in between with lots of repetition.

Hype is:
1. Lots of marketing, especially with influencers on Social media. Even if there’s no real product to sell.

2. Celebrities, where good connection (read: elite class kids) helps. Pay them to endorse the product.

3. Paid bots to hype up.

Didn’t learn much from this book.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simply put, this book did not deliver what (I thought) it promised. Read the blurb, does it sound like the book will use a pretty broad approach in discussing the subject in the title? If so, "Hype" will not deliver what you expect either.

Instead, the author - who was Emmy nominated for the documentary "Fyre" - tells a story that she's intimately familiar with, while dropping some tidbits about other scams and cons throughout. That's not really what I signed up for when picking this book. Yes, she does draw from scientific research, marketing campaigns, etc., as it says in the blurb, but these are essentially "extras" in her telling of the Billy McFarland and Fyre Festival story (which, for sure, is interesting for lots of people, but for me? No, there's a reason I haven't watched the documentary and had this book been honest on what it was about, I wouldn't have bothered picking it up). I came for the "science of Hype" so to speak, what I got was a book about something I don't really care about, with about an essays worth of stuff that interested sprinkled throughout.

That said, there are some legitimate high-points in this book. So if the story of Fyre and McFarland interests you, maybe this won't be the same let down that it was for me.

However, even had I known which story I was in for and found it interesting enough to pick up anyway, "Hype" is kind of a mess of a book. Bluestone has narrowed her audience a little too much in assuming that the reader indeed is part of the "We" in the title; She doesn't do a very good job of explaining the phenomenon for someone who isn't. It also feels like the editors took a written, organized, and well-structured book, put the pages inside a box, shook it for a few minutes and then randomly re-assembled the pages into this final form. The result is a chore to read.

If you're interested in reading a better told story of a case-story (which, after all, is what this book is) on the same topic (the scammer, grifter, and con artist bit, not the Fyre bit), I'd recommend picking up The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion instead. That was a good read!

[Silvia C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.25
The premise was interesting, and there were a lot anecdotal stories that I had not previously heard of, like the Fyre Festival, which I had not even heard of before (yes, I've been living under a rock).
In the end, I don't think it really delivered on the promise of why, and the how is mostly examples, so you need to draw your own conclusions.
Also I don't fully agree with some examples/comparisons. I recognize how they are hyped, but I don't think they are scammers, since they are delivering tangible products that meet the advertised tangibles.
That said, it still gave me the perspective and incentive to increase my critical thinking a notch when considering something on the Internet, since it's the main channel that advertisement reaches me.  

[Jenny Hogg · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book takes a deep dive into the disastrous Fyre festival, to the near exclusion of other scams, with precious little of the WHY answered. Unfortunately, it reads like a gossip column, unorganized, and hard to follow the endless name drops of celebrities I'm sure I should know. This book is extremely dated, and its shelf life is sure to be short.

[Mahmoud Aghiorly · Rating 4 out of 5]

يتحدث كتاب فورة للكاتبة غابرييل بلوستون تحديداً عن كيف استطاع المخادعون والمحتالون التسلل إلى فضاء الانترنت من بوابة المؤثرين " الانفلونسرز " و كيف احتلوا الانترنت و باتوا يتحكمون بالكثير من الأنشطة التجارية والخدمية بل وحتى السياسية , الكتاب يساعدك على رؤية كيف يعيش جيل اليوم الذين لا يفارقون الهواتف الذكية من المقام إلى المنام , ويلقي نظرة ثاقبة وكئيبة بعض الشيء حيال الأمور التي يتعرض لها هذا الجيل بسبب الكم الهائل من المغالطات والمعلومات الخادعة التي يتعرضون لها عبر سيل من الصور والأفكار والاصوات , ويركز الكتاب بصورة مباشرة على فشل مهرجان " فير " ولكن ليس هذا فحسب , بل يقدم نماذج كثيرة من العالم الحالي , نماذج مخادعين استغلوا الانترنت و فورة التواصل الاجتماعي لكي يحققوا أرباح مهولة من مثل إليزابيث هومز , آدم نيومان , ومن ثم يتحدث عن فئات ليست بالضرورة مخادعة ولكن تستغل تجارياً هذه القدرة على التواصل بحجة انهم اشخاص مؤثرين على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي او " أنفلونسرز " فعلى سبيل المثال تحدث الكتاب على المبالغ الطائلة التي تصل إلى عشرات مشاهير الإنستغرام من اجل منشور واحد فحسب ونحو ذلك , وذكر بعض الأمور التي قام بها الرئيس ترامب لكي يحسن من صورته ويزيد من شهرته قبل واثناء ترشحه للانتخابات الامريكية , ولكن ما يهم في هذا الكتاب هو انه قدم صورة تحليلية جيدة للأسباب النفسية التي تجعل الأشخاص ينساقون وراء المؤثرين دون تبين حقيقة ما يقولون او ما يفعلون , وقدم بعض الدراسات والأرقام والاقتباسات المميزة من مفكرين كبار الكتاب مميز جداً , طويل بعض الشيء , لكنه يستحق القراءة , تقيمي للكتاب 4/5 وسوف أقوم بكتابة وترجمة المقتطفات إلى العربية قريباً .

مقتطفات من كتاب فورة للكاتبة غابرييل بلوستون

ترجمة المقتطفات , ترجمة شخصية غير منقحة و قد تحوي الكثير من الاخطاء .

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We have more tools available to uncover bad actors than ever before ,yet we persist in playing along with them we keep arguing online with boots and ordering products on Amazon from companies that produce counterfeit goods simply because they were favourably reviewed by someone we don't know .
لدينا اليوم العديد من الأدوات المتاحة للكشف عن المخادعين أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك فنحن مستمرون في مجاراتهم , و ونستمر في الجدال عبر الإنترنت مع الحسابات المؤتمتة ( البوت ) و نطلب المنتجات المقلدة من أمازون فقط لان شخص ما لا نعرفه قام بتقديم تقييم إيجابي لتلك المنتجات
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Whether it's the value of a company the authenticity of a person we never met, or the efficiency of facemask during an airport pandemic, at some point along the road we as society tactically agreed to start trusting our emotions and feeling over verifiable facts , all without ever realising that how much our social media use is manipulating those judgement in the first place
سواء كانت قيمة شركة ما أو أصالة شخص لم نلتقِ به مطلقًا ، أو كفاءة قناع الوجه أثناء جائحة كورونا ، في مرحلة ما على طول الطريق ، اتفقنا كمجتمع تكتيكيًا على البدء في الثقة بمشاعرنا على حساب الحقائق التي يمكن التحقق منها ، كل ذلك بدون ندرك دائمًا أن مقدار استخدامنا لوسائل التواصل الاجتماعي يتلاعب بهذه الأحكام في المقام الأول
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For most of us social media isn't just another messaging program . it's long since morphed into extension of the physical identity , a digital resume of ones personality
بالنسبة لمعظمنا ، فإن وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي ليست مجرد برامج مراسلة. لقد تحولت منذ فترة طويلة إلى امتداد للهوية المادية و سيرة ذاتية رقمية لشخصية الفرد
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The tech world ,in particular, encourage its valuation to spiral upward by shrouding the industry in a new age mysticism that transfer tunnel-boring company into a futuristic shuttle system, a real estate company into a state of consciousness ,and an artist booking company into a luxurious music festival
يشجع عالم التكنولوجيا ، على وجه الخصوص ، المبالغة في التقييم عبر اغراق الصناعة بسرابيات تحول شركة حفر خنادق إلى نظام تنقل مكوكي مستقبلي ، وشركة عقارية إلى حالة من الوعي ، وشركة حجز فنانين إلى مهرجان موسيقي فاخر
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People of every age seemed to be in sort of post truth sort of scenario here, where I get to pick my own facts there are a lot of facts out there , I get to pick the ones that I like and I can go with those, and nobody can really tell me those aren't the facts because it's my truth. those are my facts, and don't tell me there not ,the facts that we are all kind of getting caught up in that. leaves me in a very worried about the world. we even now get to pick which scientistic we want to believe and so I know that 98% of the scientists say this but I like the guys who are in the 2% . I think what they say, they are scientist after all, so I'm going to go with them you can't tell me not to because again that's my truth
يبدو أن الناس من كل الأعمار يعيشون اليوم في عصر ما بعد الحقيقة ، حيث يمكنني في هذا العصر اختيار الحقائق الخاصة بي لانه وبكل بساطة هناك الكثير من الحقائق المتاحة ، يمكنني اختيار تلك التي أحبها ويمكنني التعامل معها ، ولا أحد يستطيع أن يخبرني حقًا أن هذه ليست الحقائق الصحيحة , لأنها تشكل الحقيقة خاصتي . هذه هي حقائقي ، ولا تخبرني بعدم وجودها أو صحتها . وعندما تتحول الحقائق لمنتج فهذا يتركني في حالة من القلق الشديد بشأن العالم الذي نعيش فيه . نحن الآن نختار أي عالم نريد تصديقه ويمكننا ان نقول بكل بساطة أنني أعرف أن 98٪ من العلماء يقولون عكس ما قاله هذا العالم الذي اختره وان أفكاره لا تمثل سوى 2٪. الا اني اؤمن بما يقوله ، فهو احد العلماء أولا واخيراً ، لذلك سأذهب معه في الرأي ولا يمكنك إخباري بألا أفعل ذلك لأن هذه هي الحقيقة خاصتي مرة أخرى
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There used to be public shaming but that seems to have gone away because we're now so partisanly divined that when one person accused someone else of something, there is going to be a group that automatically endorses and retweet. and then there will be a direct comments that ratio it out, and that's kind of now where we have come, which either thumbs up or thumbs down .and so nuance doesn't matter. you have got only so many characters to make your pitch
كان هناك فيما مضى تشهير علني للمخادعين ولكن يبدو أن هذا قد اختفى , لأننا الآن مصنفين بشكل حزبي , فعندما يتهم شخص ما شخصًا من حزب او طرف آخر بشيء ما ، ستكون هناك مجموعة تؤيد وتعيد التغريد تلقائيًا لهذا الاتهام دون التحقق منه . وبعد ذلك ستكون هناك تعليقات مباشرة بمئات الكلمات اما لتأكيد الاتهام او تفنيده لندخل في دوامة أفكار واراء واتهامات تضيع فيها الحقيقة ، وهذا هو العالم الذي نعيش فيه الان , مجرد اعجابات او رفض على فضاء العالم الالكتروني , لا حقائق ولا أفكار , وهناك مئات الأشخاص الذي يستطيعون ان يقدموا لك الاعجاب او الرفض والتعليقات مقابل بضعة دولارات
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I think that when you see someone on the screen over a long period of time, the reputation of seeing someone that takes on some kind of level of authority figure, or some kind of aspirational hero quality I think it gives them the power to be able to do those kind of things , living in the gap between their promises and the reality
أعتقد أنه عندما ترى شخصًا ما على الشاشة على مدى فترة طويلة من الزمن ، فإن رؤية هذا الشخص سوف تعطيه نوعًا ما مستوى من السلطة ، أو نوعًا ما سمة من سمات البطل الطموح , أعتقد أنه يمنحهم القوة ليكونوا قادرين لفعل هذا النوع من الأشياء ( التأثير على الاخرين ) و العيش في الفجوة بين وعودهم المبالغ بها والواقع
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In a world in which politicians can challenge the fact and pay no political price whatsoever , post truth is bigger than one person it exists in us as well in our leader and the forces behind it have been building up for quite some time, the result is that we are living now in world which side you are on matters more than what the facts say
في عالم يستطيع فيه السياسيون تحدي وتحريف الحقائق دون دفع أي ثمن سياسي على الإطلاق لذلك، فان حقائق ما بعد الحقيقة تصبح أكبر من أي شخص , انها تتجلى ( الحقائق المحرفة ) في زعمائنا والقوى التي تقف وراءها والتي تتراكم منذ بعض الوقت ، والنتيجة هي أننا نعيش الآن في عالم يهم فيه في أي جانب ( سياسي / أيديولوجي ) تقف أنت لصالحه , أكثر مما تقوله الحقائق بكثير
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It just feels like our sceptical eye just has been removed entirely from the financial community and somehow PR has replaced journalism , you have created a perfect strong for fraudsters, well intentioned or not ,to fleece the public and the capital base
يبدو الأمر وكأن عيننا المتشككة قد أزيلت تمامًا من المجتمع المالي وبطريقة ما حلت العلاقات العامة محل الصحافة ، لقد أوجدت بيئة مثالية للمحتالين ، سواء بحسن النية أم لا يتم قضم رأس مال العامة و مدخراتهم
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People screw up mostly not because they're just intentional frauds, at least in their own minds, but because they will tell themselves a story that make them feel like they are one of the good guys ,even as they do bad things , when they are charming and energetic and persuasive they can take a lot of people along with them unfortunately
يخطئ الناس في الغالب ليس لأنهم مخادعون ، على الأقل ليسوا كذلك أمام انفسهم ومن وجهة نظرهم ، ولكن لأنهم يخبرون أنفسهم قصة تجعلهم يشعرون أنهم أحد الأخيار حتى عندما يفعلون أشياء سيئة ، و عندما يفعلون ذلك بأساليب ساحرة وحيوية ومقنعة عبر وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي يمكنهم لسوء الحظ أن يخدعوا الكثير من الناس
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Imagine if you were a caveman and you were walking with your tribe through the fields and the jungle and everybody start running, you would start running instinctively because you didn't have time to figure out if there is actually a tiger chasing you or not. and so that heard mental mentality is what drives people to make decisions and not to do their proper diligence or take responsibility for decisions that they make, it help save much needed mental energy on choosing for yourself
تخيل لو كنت رجل كهف وكنت تمشي مع قبيلتك عبر الحقول والغابة وبدأ الجميع بالركض ، فستبدأ في الجري بشكل غريزي لأنه لن يكون لديك الوقت لمعرفة ما إذا كان هناك نمر يطاردك أم لا. وبالتالي فإن العقلية الجمعية ( ثقافة القطيع ) هي التي تدفع الناس إلى اتخاذ القرارات وعدم بذل الجهد المناسب أو تحمل المسؤولية عن القرارات التي يتخذونها ، فهي تساعدهم في توفير الطاقة العقلية التي تشتد الحاجة إليها عند الاختيار لنفسك سواء اختيار المبادئ او الأفكار او القناعات
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As humans we are deeply motivated to accept what the people around us say is true ,even when it obviously isn't. we have known about this problem for a while, thought that doesn't seem to help us resist it any
نحن كبشر لدينا دافع عميق لقبول ما يقوله الناس من حولنا على أنه صحيح ، حتى عندما يكون من الواضح أنه ليس كذلك. لقد عرفنا عن هذه المشكلة منذ فترة ، واعتقدنا أن معرفتنا هذه لا تساعدنا على مقاومة تصديق أي شيء يجتمع عليه العامة
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Whether it's through Instagram tik T.O.K or whatever new app media influencer are using to communicate with the world at large ,one thing is undeniable: the world is watching and history suggests we have always been watching on some level
سواء كان ذلك من خلال التيك توك , او الإنستغرام أو أيًا كان التطبيق الجديد الذي يستخدمه العالم للتواصل مع العالم بأسره ، هناك شيء واحد لا يمكن إنكاره: العالم يراقب , ويوحي التاريخ بأننا كنا دائمًا نشاهده ونراقب الاخرين على مستوى معين
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Studies shows that social networking usage is linked to increase social comparison and negative effectiveness state such as envy and jealousy , and that these feelings are amplified when you're just passively scrolling. social media is no longer it's something we can just opt into , for most millennials who grew up with the Internet and certainly Generation Z it becomes a natural extension of our life
تظهر الدراسات أن استخدام الشبكات الاجتماعية مرتبط بزيادة المقارنة الاجتماعية وحالات الانفعالات السلبية مثل الحسد والغيرة ، وأن هذه المشاعر تتضخم عندما تقوم فقط بالتمرير او تقليب الصفحات السلبي دون المشاركة . لم تعد وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي شيئًا ما يمكننا فقط الاشتراك به ، بالنسبة لمعظم جيل الألفية الذين نشأوا مع الإنترنت اصبحت امتدادًا طبيعيًا لحياتنا
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Nowadays social networking does not necessarily refer to what we do, but who we are and how we relate to one another, there appears to be an inherent understanding or requirement in today's technology loving culture that one need to engage in online social networking in order not to miss out ,to stay up to date and to connect
في الوقت الحاضر ، لا تشير الشبكات الاجتماعية بالضرورة فقط إلى ما نقوم به بل من نحن أيضاً وكيف نتواصل مع بعضنا البعض ، يبدو أن هناك فهمًا أو مطلبًا متأصلًا في ثقافة اليوم المحبة للتكنولوجيا يحتاج المرء فيه إلى الانخراط في الشبكات الاجتماعية عبر الإنترنت من أجل عدم تفويت الفرص ، والبقاء على اطلاع دائم والتواصل مع الآخرين , بكل بساطة لم يعد هناك بديل لذلك !
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Social networking provides safety, association, estimation and self-realisation, by allowing user to customise their privacy, connect with like-minded individual and compare their performance online to others. finally the need for self-realisation, the highest attainable goal that only a small minority of individuals are able to achieve, can be reached by presenting oneself in a way one want to present oneself, and by supporting friends on those social networking sites who require help
توفر الشبكات الاجتماعية الأمان والارتباط والتقدير وتحقيق الذات ، من خلال السماح للمستخدم بتخصيص حسابه والتواصل مع الأفراد ذوي التفكير المماثل ومقارنة أدائهم عبر الإنترنت مع الآخرين. في نهاية المطاف الحاجة إلى تحقيق الذات هو أعلى هدف يمكن تحقيقه ولا يستطيع تحقيقه سوى أقلية صغيرة من الأفراد ، ويمكن الوصول إليه من خلال تقديم الانسان لنفسه بالطريقة التي يريد المرء أن يقدم نفسه وهذا سهل جداً عبر وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي ، وأيضاً من خلال دعم الأصدقاء على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي الذين يحتاجون هذا النوع من المساعدة
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In today's age we are the commodity and we're kind of being sold over and over again on social media. there are all these ideological and moral inconsistencies in how we behave on social media and how our tech giants behave. and there is a lot of room for concern and it can be very scary
في عصر اليوم ، نحن السلعة ويتم بيعنا مرارًا وتكرارًا على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي. هناك كم هائل من التناقضات الأيديولوجية والأخلاقية في كيفية تصرفنا نحن كأفراد على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي وكيف يتصرف عمالقة التكنولوجيا. وهناك مجال كبير للقلق ويمكن أن يكون مخيفًا جدًا اذا استمر الامر على هذا النحو
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We have become more isolated, we are lonelier our emotions are therefore more easily manipulated, and This is why we fall for scams, when you see how lonely we really are on regular basis, I think that's one of the big factors as to why, even though we have the tools at our disposal, a part of us just want wants to be fooled just so we can feel less lonely and I'm very sympathetic to that
لقد أصبحنا أكثر عزلة ، وأصبحنا أكثر وحدة ، وبالتالي يتم التلاعب بعواطفنا بسهولة أكبر ، ولهذا السبب نقع في براثن حيل وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي ، عندما ترى مدى شعورنا بالوحدة بصورة عامة سوف تدرك ان هذا الشعور هو أحد العوامل الكبيرة التي تفسر سبب انسياقنا وراء المخادعين على الانترنت ، على الرغم من أن لدينا الأدوات المتاحة لنا لاكتشاف هذه الخدع ، إلا أن جزءًا منا يريد فقط أن ينخدع فقط لكي يشعر بوحدة أقل ، وأنا متعاطف جدًا مع ذلك
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Social media has become so hopelessly commodified that, even as a consumer, we are also the marketer. it's just that most of us are not profiting from it monetarily or spiritually, but we also can't stop using it
أصبحت وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي سلعة بشكل ميؤوس منها لدرجة أننا كمستهلكون بتنا أيضًا المسوقون. إن الأمر يتعلق فقط بأن معظمنا لا يستفيد من ذلك ماديًا أو روحيًا ، ولكن لا يمكننا أيضًا التوقف عن استخدامها
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As humans we are always searching for ways to feel part of a tribe ,online and off and apps like Facebook Twitter Instagram and tiktok provide that buzz . with every post tweet or user anticipate social validation, rewards of tribe keep users coming back wanting more
كبشر ، نحن نبحث دائمًا عن طرق للشعور بأننا جزء من قبيلة او ننتمي لكيان معين ، عبر الإنترنت توفر تطبيقات مثل الفيسبوك والإنستغرام والتك توك و تويتر هذا الشعور . مع كل تغريدة أو منشور يتوقع المستخدم نوع من الاعتراف المجتمعي به ويقدم هذا الاعتراف شيء يشبه مكافآت القبيلة والتي تجعل المستخدمين يعودون إلى النشر لانهم راغبين في المزيد
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The transformation of our relationship with digital products overtime just like painkillers. at the outset, they are nice to have, but over the time they become hopelessly addicted
تحولت علاقتنا بالمنتجات الرقمية مع الوقت إلى شيء يشبه المسكنات. في البداية يكون من الجيد استخدامها ، لكن بمرور الوقت نصبح مدمنين بشكل ميؤوس منه عليها
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Emotion particularly negative ones are powerful internal triggers and greatly influence our daily routine, feelings of boredom, loneliness, frustration, confusion and indecisiveness often instigate a slight pain or irritation and promote an almost instantaneous and often mindless action to quill the negative sensation ,seeking pleasure and avoiding pain or the key motivators in all species
المشاعر السلبية بشكل خاص هي محفزات داخلية قوية وتؤثر بشكل كبير على روتيننا اليومي ، ومشاعر الملل والوحدة والإحباط والارتباك وعدم الحسم ( التردد ) غالبًا ما تحفز ألم خفيف أو تهيج في الجسد وتعزز فعلًا فوريًا وغالبًا ما يكون طائشًا لتهدئة هذا الإحساس السلبي ، فالبحث عن المتعة وتجنب الألم هو المحفز الرئيسي في جميع الأنواع
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Lonely people are more likely to use social media which make you feel even lonelier
من المرجح أن استخدام الأشخاص الوحيدون وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي يجعلهم يشعرون بالوحدة أكثر
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On the perimeters of any subculture, you have your inner core group, who are likely the creators, and, for the lack of better word, the influencers. and then you ripple out a little bit, and then along the perimeter you do have that impact where there is a people who don't quite get it, or who don't deeply care but they want to fit in.
في محيط أي ثقافة فرعية ، لديك مجموعة النواة الخاصة بها ، والتي من المحتمل أن تكون فئة من المبدعين وكذلك المؤثرون- الانفلونسرز (بسبب عدم وجود كلمة أفضل) . وبعد ذلك على طول المحيط يكون لديك موجات من التأثير حيث يتلقاه مجموعة من أشخاص الذين لا يفهمونه تمامًا ، أو لا يهتمون كثيرًا ولكنهم يريدون الاندماج ويريدون الشعور بالانتماء .
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The whole concept of influencer is definitely that you have this core group of people who are viewed as cool, and they're often creatives themselves, and they tend to amass following. and then if you go further out you are going to have people who have no clue about any sort of intricacies of that subculture, but it looks cool to them
المفهوم الكامل لـ المؤثر / الانفلونسرز هو أن لديك مجموعة أساسية من الأشخاص الذين يُنظر إليهم على أنهم رائعون ، وغالبًا ما يكونون هم أنفسهم مبدعين ولكنهم يميلون إلى حشد المتابعين. وبعد ذلك ، لديك أشخاص ليس لديهم أدنى فكرة عن أي نوع من التعقيدات في تلك الثقافة الفرعية ، لكنها تبدو رائعة بالنسبة لهم

[Hannah T · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m disappointed by this book. It has all the elements that make it the perfect book for me - internet scammers and grifters, references to Caroline Calloway and Anna Delvey, and meditations on what influencer culture means, but the book was so unfocused and messy that I couldn’t fully enjoy it.

The use of Fyre Festival as a framing method didn’t work, there was no organization within chapters, so she went from talking about Fyre Festival to plastic surgery to Donald Trump, and a lot of the conclusions and theories put forward are very meh/obvious. She also spends a LOT of time directly quoting experts and interviewees, and it feels like she leans on them to make her points for her instead of making them herself. I just didn’t feel like it had anything new to offer me, and it mostly feels like a book about Fyre Festival plus a collection of her random thoughts about the Internet and Internet phenomena.

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Fyre Festival Documentary: The Book, with a few more internet scammers thrown for good measure. Never really gets at the "why we're following." The author frequently extends her social media habits activities to encompass everyone who uses social media. So there's a lot of "We"when it should be "I."

[Lauren James]

[Gifted]
As a big fan of conspiracy theories, especially online ones, this was the perfect book for me. I loved learning more about the thinking behind scammers online - there were some really thoughtful interviews in there, which added a lot nuanced analysis to the author's thoughts. Really fascinating!

[Amy Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been so much better. I was looking forward to a delightful romp through the vapid, absurd, fake, tedious influencer culture that has taken the world by storm. But alas… this failed to deliver.

It’s not so much that the content of the book was bad, but rather the format. Or maybe the delivery? It sounded like a transcript of one of those talking head documentaries where you just get soundbites from various individuals throughout the entire show. The book relied so heavily on quotes from other people, it was difficult to tell what was the author’s own thoughts versus what was a quote from somebody else. This could just be bc I listened to the audiobook rather than reading it.

It also was lacking coherent, cohesive chapters. It seemed to bounce around between telling the story of Fyre Festival with tidbits about other people, such as Elon Musk, or Elizabeth Holmes interspersed.

Overall, it just didn’t do it for me.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Struggled to finish this and skimmed a lot. The premise and title promised more than the book actually delivered. How meta is that. It’s disorganized, jumps from topic to topic, and doesn’t really get to the heart of the why and the how. The Fyre Festival debacle is meant to be the key through line for the book, but as a book narrative it’s not good. I’ve read the articles and I’ve seen the documentaries. The book version should be a better version of the narrative but it’s not. I know the author covered Fyre for Vice. This book feels like it was slapped together to deliver on a book deal secured from that reporting. Where was the editing team on this?

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a truly awful book that lacks narrative, structure and doesn’t deliver on its title or synopsis. Ironically, Hype turned out to be exactly what it claimed to be focusing on, and is the literal equivalent of ‘con artists, grifters and snake oil salesmen’. This book is not an ‘eye-opening look’ into their world, it’s a poorly hashed together re-work of Fyre; it takes the scraps of the cutting room floor of the Netflix documentary and painfully stitches them together into a 10-hour, unstructured, mono-tone ramble.

You might think I’m being harsh here, but I’m not. If like me you are drawn to the promise of finding out the secret of ‘why we can’t stop falling for them’, you can skip the entire book. For two reasons – 1) the book NEVER tells you this, instead it painfully describes what con-artists are doing without any deeper dive into their actions, which is then repeated again in a later chapter, and – 2) the book is exactly about this type of fake promise. Just as Fyre sold tickets for a festival that didn’t exist, this book sells itself on a narrative that doesn’t exist. It is possibly the most ironic piece of work I’ve ever seen.

There is absolutely no structure to this book. 10 hours of listening to a dull, mono-tone, heavy American-accent woman is hard, but even more difficult when there are only 8 chapters, some hours long, others 20 minutes. It’s impossible to navigate and doesn’t have a narrative. Instead, you are wished and washed from one observation to another description of the Fyre festival.

75% of this book is about Fyre and McFarland. There is no analysis. No creativity, no secret sharing, nothing to learn at all. Just 10 hours of listening to what was editing out of the documentary.

Why you might ask did I listen to all of it? Firstly, I have a very long drive everyday and need something to make the time pass, albeit the commute felt far longer with this drivel. Secondly, I had to listen to more of the story to leave a review. And this was important as I don’t want you to waste your time or money on this truly terrible book.

I urge you not to buy this book. It does not deliver on any of its promises. Its poorly written, poorly narrated, has no value add, no structure, no narrative and is just an over-extended, 10-hr observation of McFarland and Fyre festival.

Watch the Netflix documentary. Paint a wall. Go for a long walk in the rain without a coat. Do anything else you can think of, other than buying and listening to Hype, as it literally is a lot of Hype about nothing.

[Romany · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s something about the Fyre festival that is so intriguing to me. If you’ve watched (any of) the documentaries about Fyre, you will already have heard much of the info in this book. But I didn’t care! I loved the accessible, journalistic writing, and the thematic threads connecting popular scammers of the last few years.

[Katia · Rating 1 out of 5]

man this sucked. such a good premise. but if i had submitted a college assignment that was 99% just quotes from other people (whole paragraphs of russell brand talking which was barely relevant) i would have failed the class. so little organization too. most interesting part was the chapter on caroline calloway. it would seem the biggest grift of all was this book.

[Kelly]

Eighty percent of this is about the Fyre Festival and the remaining 20% is messily organized. It doesn't really do what the title claims it will, but if it was clear this was about the way people fell for Fyre and other McFarland grifts, it'd be shorter, tighter, and more accurate.

[Tilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

känner än en gång för att radera Instagram... men kommer jag...?

[Kelly Lynn Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the world of scammers who use social media to gain followers, clout, and money. This isn't a book about mundane scams from broke "Nigerian princes", but rather people like influencers and business owners who make big promises and fall short, sometimes spectacularly (as in the Fyre Festival).

Bill McFarland and the Fyre Festival forms the core of this book, with the author's astute reporting on the festival beginning to end setting the stage for her exploration of other internet scammers. A fascinating book that will have you rethinking who you follow on Instagram and why.

[Sophia pollock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive, verbose, and disconnected. I don’t like writing negative reviews as writing a book in itself is an amazing accomplishment. However, I can’t in good faith let another reader waste ~7 hours of their life on this.

[Austin Reads Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a MUST READ for everyone, especially with the increasing presence of social media within our society. Hype sheds light on well-known scams as well as pulling back the curtain of large businesses to reveal the reality of their finances and corruption. This book puts capitalism and the American dream in perspective. It makes you think twice before purchasing products as well as accepting the "Truth".

[Gretchen Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

could’ve gleaned more from this book if i hadn’t already seen the fyre festival documentary 100 times. that’s on me! it’s my comfort movie!

[pugs · Rating 5 out of 5]

my main complaint: i wish this book were longer! it flows nicely and it's an addictive read, especially if you have any interest in social media drama and consumerism or fomo of such. 'hype' is grounded in the disaster that was fyre fest, its founder climbing, and falling - upwards - somehow, even from prison. along the way are offshoots of the models ("real" vs models -vs.- "not real" ig "models"), the celebrities and "influencers" online promoting fyre fest, and whatever else you can think of, and then some, prices charged per social media post, the absolute fabrication of "richest people" lists, and the sociopath tactics from the likes of trumps, kardashians, and jenners. while i loathe conmen, i love hearing the details (esp. after taking an english class at university that focused on the question of the con: pt barnum, ben franklin, artist jsg boggs, and 'the confidence man;' it was one of my favorites and kept my interest ever since). damaged people damaging people. social media is so bad, but that "what's next?" is awfully good at eating attention. as i type this on a social media platform owned by - amazon - and they'd rather me bash them on their own site than not having me on it whatsoever; we're all susceptible and pathetic in our own ways, shout out to algorithms and surveillance capitalism. i want to bury my phone in a corn field. is the meat of this book really five stars, or do i feel a need to build on the parasocial relationship of an author whose 3-4 star book i just read? subscribe to my premium reviews to find out!!1!

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel very short-changed by this book. It purports to be a general book about scammers and con artists online but 80% of the book is about Billy McFarland, with one or two other examples thrown together. Most of the other 20% is about why people were taken in by what was a fairly obvious scam.

As for the formatting and structure of the book, it's basically thrown together in a haphazard order as though it's written by someone who spends their life looking at Instagram feeds. There are nominally chapters with titles but most of them blur into one another. Then the subject matter literally changes from one paragraph to the next with no content breaks. There is of course no index, as most of it would reference "McFarland, Billy" or "Fyre Festival". Presumably, to avoid litigation though, there is an extensive list of references, every single one of them is a web page; there is not a single book listed among them I don't think (the author clearly is not used to full-length books).

There is the content for a good book in here if suitably edited and cross-referenced, but it would have to be about the Fyre Festival, not something masquerading as a much wider study.

[Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would say about 95% of this book is a play-by-play of the "planning" and then disastrous execution of the Fyre Festival.

At no point does the book live up to its title, subtitle, or official synopsis. There is very little 'how', and basically no 'why'. It's mostly just "this happened, then this happened".

I'm glad Bluestone is proud that she's the one who broke the initial Fyre story. That's cool, and a hell of an accomplishment. She clearly just wanted to write a book about that, so the question is, why didn't she?

It's rather funny that this book is (purportedly) about how the modern world is full of people selling inferior products, coasting off of hype, then being a bait and switch, because that's also what this book is.

In the end, it's pretty readable, and Fyre is still a compelling enough story to sustain my attention, but that's not the book I signed up for.

The book is also edited oddly, features a few truly bizarre non-sequiturs (like her multi-page rant about how she didn't like Avatar), and ends EXTREMELY abruptly with a half-chapter on Covid.

Ultimately I can't see myself recommending this to anyone, even if I didn't hate myself while I read it.

[Joe Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabrielle Bluestone who broke the Fyre Festival story for Vice expands on her reporting in this engrossing look at the way PR and advertising have changed in the era of social media.
Sizzle has replaced steak in a time when promotional fantasies dominate the Internet. The Fyre Festival took advantage of this situation - hyping the would be music festival right up to the time it crashed and burned, leaving ticket holders stranded on a miserable island with no music, no lodgings and none of the supermodels who had flogged the project. Bluestone uses this disaster as a jumping off point for a revealing deep dive into other areas of social media hype where Instagram ‘influencers’ with large followings are paid anywhere from $250,000 to one million dollars for a single post.
Readers will come away with a reinforced skepticism of some of today’s most dubious marketing methods. (An advance electronic ARC was provided by Edelweiss.)

[Chloe Thonus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I was looking at a book exploring multiple examples of scammers and grifters, how scammers scam people and why we fall for scams, however it was just mainly about Fyre Festival. It would have interesting, but eh, I can read about Fyre Festival, except this was a very disorganized and repetitive story about the Fyre Festival. I guess that's what happens when you pick a subject without much substance to it. I really don't like to give things one star, but this book really did not redeem itself for me in any way.

[Caroline Hirko · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep dive mostly on Billy McFarland, the man behind the Fyre Festival fiasco, as that was who Gabrielle reported on, but also a look at Elon Musk (Tesla/Space X), Elizabeth Homes (Theranos), Adam Newman (WeWork), Caroline Calloway (instagram influencer?), and those types. I really enjoyed this book and felt like I learned even more (although I also highly recommend the Netflix documentary on Fyre Festival and the Hulu documentaries on both Fyre and WeWork if you're interested).

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was an erratic telling of a fringe perspective on the Fyre festival and the corrupt scam artists that put it on. This didn't cover the title of the book or why we are drawn to social media - but rather read like a blog post from someone who accidentally got invited to the party and was bragging to her friends. I wish I had learned anything from this. I wouldn't have been so disappointed if the book had been titled otherwise. Half way through I wondered if I was also being tricked.