Share Better and Stress Less: A Guide to Thinking Ecologically about Social Media

by Whitney Phillips, Ryan Milner

Two media experts offer a witty, warm, and relatable take on how information pollution affects our online networks—and our well-being—and how to maximize a positive impact.

We know that pollution damages our physical environments—but what about the digital landscape? Touching on everything from goat memes gone wrong to conflict in group chats to the sometimes unexpected side effects of online activism, this lively guide to media literacy draws on ecological, social justice, and storytelling frameworks to help readers understand how information pollution spreads and why. It also helps them make sense of the often stressful and strange online world. Featuring a hyperconnected cast of teens and their social-media shenanigans, reader-friendly text tackles the thorny topic of internet ethics while empowering—and inspiring—young readers to weave a safe, secure, and inclusive digital world. Readers are invited to delve further into the subject with the help of comprehensive source notes and a bibliography in the back matter.

Genres: Young Adult, Education

176 pages, Hardcover

Published March 14, 2023

About the author

Whitney Phillips is Assistant Professor in Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University. She teaches classes in media literacy and online ethics; online discourse and controversy; folklore and digital culture; and lore surrounding monster narratives, urban legends, hoaxes, and crime. Phillips holds a Ph.D. in English with a folklore-structured emphasis (digital culture focus) from the University of Oregon (2012); an M.F.A. in creative writing (fiction) from Emerson College (2007); and a B.A. in philosophy from Humboldt State University (2004).

Prior to joining Syracuse University, Phillips was a lecturer in media, culture, and communication at New York University (2012-2013), a lecturer in communication at Humboldt State University (2014-2015), and assistant professor of literary studies and writing at Mercer University (2015-2018).

Phillips’ research explores antagonism and identity-based harassment online; the relationship between vernacular expression, state and corporate influences, and emerging technologies; political memes and other forms of ambivalent civic participation; and digital ethics, including journalistic ethics and the ethics of everyday social media use.

She is the author of the three-part ethnographic report The Oxygen of Amplification: Better Practices for Reporting on Extremists, Antagonists, and Manipulators Online (Data & Society Media Manipulation Initiative, 2018). She has written numerous articles and book chapters on a range of media, folklore, and digital culture topics, most recently “fake news” narratives, technological play with the afterlife, and the role social and memetic media played during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Additionally, she has published dozens of popular press pieces on digital culture and ethics in outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Slate.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things won the Association of Internet Researchers 2015 Nancy Baym best book award. She is regularly featured as an expert commentator in national and global news outlets, and her work on the ethics of journalistic amplification has been profiled by the Columbia Journalism Review, Niemen Journalism Lab, and Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy. She is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers and the American Folklore Society.

Reviews

[Avery Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the perspective of a fourteen year old teenager, presumably in the targeted audience of the book(hence the name “MITeenPress” of the publications), the writing style of the book seemed to be written for a younger audience. It appeared this way to the reader because it overemphasized incorporating bits of pop culture and modern-day slang into a book about a psychological and self-help book about social media usage. The authors excessively used their own names within the story, similarly as if it were a podcast. The authors were able to explain the information fully, even if done from a perspective that I would not have personally considered.
Although this approach did not appeal to me specifically, it has potential to profit from other teenagers with hopes for easily comprehensible books.

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give the book credit for a novel framework - comparing the impact of 'information pollution ' to the more readily understood concepts of environmental pollution. About a dozen pages in, I checked the authors bios and realized this is a YA book, very intentionally written for a digital native audience, although that is not where I found it in our public library, and as a mature adult I perhaps held it to a standard I would normally use for other serious non-fiction. So - I am grading on the curve here with 4 stars. A young person would probably be able to review more accurately.

At the same time I read 'How to Inhabit Time' by James K.A. Smith and 'Share Better' perfectly framed Smith's thesis that "knowing WHEN we are can change everything'.

[Smitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, a must-read for teenagers as well as adults! This book is designed for a teen audience but I think it is still accessible and informative for adults. The authors take complicated ideas like algorithms, the ecosystem of a digital environment, and assumptions of free market and freedom in social media and simplifies them to be understood through the metaphors of a forest and enviornment. This book truly showed me why it is not necessarily true that social media is informative and helpful when there are algorithm and assumptions and attention seeking mechanisms wired into the apps. This book also showed me how sometimes we might think we posting in a helpful way, but it is actual harmful to specific audiences. I highly recommend this book to anyone!

[Liz Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight on being a better digital citizen.

[Cathy Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better for the intended audience than for me

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid information, but the format didn't work for me. I found the narrative parts to be distracting rather than enhancing the information being presented.

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn’t agree with some points in the book but there were good points made about the ecology of the information systems. helpful for teens