Which Side of History?: How Technology Is Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives

by James P. Steyer

"A valuable primer on this moment where humans are deciding how much power over their lives they give to monopolies and algorithms." —DAVE EGGERS, bestselling author of The CircleWhich Side of History? offers a collection of bold essays on how technology is affecting democracy, society, and our future.Featuring prominent national voices such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Marc Benioff, Ellen Pao, Ken Auletta, Chelsea Clinton, Tim Wu, Khaled Hosseini, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Jaron Lanier, Willow Bay, Sal Khan, Sherry Turkle, Shoshana Zuboff, Vivek Murthy, Geoffrey Canada, and many more.The essays focus on the extraordinary impact of technology on our privacy, kids and families, race and gender roles, democracy, climate change, and mental health.This groundbreaking book challenges opinion leaders and the broader public to take action to improve technology's effects on our lives.• Featuring notable journalists, engineers, entrepreneurs, novelists, activists, filmmakers, business leaders, scholars, and researchers, Thomas Friedman, Kara Swisher, Michelle Alexander, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Jenna Wortham, Cameron Kasky, Howard Gardner, and Tristan Harris.• Explores the ethical behavior of Big Tech, or the lack thereof.• Offers roadmaps for constructive change and thought-provoking perspectives.With the rise of cyberbullying and hate speech online, issues around climate change and technology, and the "move fast and break things" mentality of tech culture, Which Side of History? will urge readers to draw the line.• This book will help shape the conversations we have around technology in our society and our future for years to come.• A smart book for anyone who approaches tech and the future with a healthy skepticism• Edited by James P. Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense Media.• Add it to the shelf with books like Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier, The What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, and The Age of Surveillance The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Audiobook, Psychology

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2020

Reviews

[elizabeth sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of essays compiled by Common Sense Media CEO sorted into specific themes of history, kids, democracy, big tech business models, race, and more. Each from interesting, thoughtful experts in a huge variety of fields and perspectives - professors, executives, journalists, researchers, tech engineers/designers, politicians and more. Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, White House/DC, numerous professional organizations and so much more. Each essay could easily be a prompt for class or dinner table discussion.
This is not a book convincing you to give up your tech or filled with fear. Instead, it prompts you to critically think, reflect, and consider technology in the many facets of society.
Yes, it’s nonfiction and doesn’t read like a novel. But it’s powerful, useful compilation you can pick up & put down, and offers numerous recommendations for further reading if you want to go deeper into a specific thread.
At the end of the day in extremely simplistic view, technology starts with a human building an algorithm... many of whom are 20-40yr white dudes. And much of our technology, media/news, and more is driven with advertising revenue. FaceBook takes a beating in many essays, but this book is much more beyond just them. Several essays are critically thinking about education, democracy, business models and ethics.

[Florent Diverchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book directed by the founder of Common Sense Media...
As I usually find CSM exaggerating its recommendation, coddling way to much children and teenagers, I wasn't sure I would like the book.
But the fact that all those different authors have their own sensibility, and the fact that, working in the field, I know that all hey are saying is TRUE, I finally find this is a necessary reading for all digital marketing.
We shouldn't ignore the dark side of our job, but look at it directly, and do something about it.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read, from the negative influences of unbridled tech on children, on all of us, really, to the racism inherent in algorithms (“nothing more than opinions embedded in mathematics- Cathy O’Neil) used for practically everything now. Also, very readable. If you only have a little time, read Part 6.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, which is a collection of essays from various well-known and not so well known thought leaders, was assigned reading for a Stanford class that I attended last fall, moderated by Steyer. We read and discussed some of the essays. I decided to finish the book recently, but found that about half way through I was skimming and paging forward a lot, because the subjects and responses by the authors had become repetitive and somewhat redundant.

Nevertheless, the topics of technology, privacy, race and gender roles, democracy, climate change and mental healthy are vitally important and will continue to need to be dealt with as we discover the dangers that rapidly advancing technology has created for all of us and our children.

[Aeryn Longuevan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that this book had a little blurb about the author(s) of each essay/excerpt at the beginning. I also appreciated the organization of the book into a few main themes. Most of the sections were fairly brief (probably around 5 pages), so it was easy to read in short bursts.

I found some of the essays to be redundant, but it was still interesting to see where people with different expertise had differing and overlapping opinions.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful points about the effects of technology (mainly social media) on American democracy. Some of the chosen essays seemed baseless with no statistics and general statements made. For the most part, an interesting read but wouldn't suggest it to someone who wants in-depth and broad knowledge about technology.

[Leah Hortin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the overall message is good, the format is less than ideal. Some essays came off as self promotion and self congratulatory, and many discussed the same exact topic in a slightly different way making the collection feel repetitive. I don't feel like I learned anything new (granted, I've read a books by few authors featured), and I don't feel particularly hopeful either.

[Mert Topcu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book as part of the Stanford Continuing Studies class from the writer.
It's a collector articles by various people. Some are better than others of course.
It's worth the read given how technology is influencing every aspect of our lives.

[Tine Bjornlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative without the doom and gloom.
Yes, we need to get the upper hand in terms of the social media platforms.