"The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. It's 2010. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own...

Explains what social networking is, how it works, and some of the various sites used to connect with others online, including Blogger, MySpace, Facebook, and KidMix.

Lanier offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave the dangers of online platforms behind. He has seen their tendency to bring out the worst in us, to make politics terrifying, to trick us with illusions of popularity and success, to twist our relationship with the truth, to disconnect us from other people. And he asks: How could the benefits of social media possibly outweigh the catastrophic losses to our personal dignity, happiness,...

"American society is more polarized than ever before. We are strategically being pushed apart by disinformation--the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth--and it comes at us from all sides: opportunists on the far right, Russian misinformed social media influencers, among others. It's endangering our democracy and causing havoc in our electoral system, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and in our Capitol. Advances in technology including...

Evan goes from being a nobody to everyone's hero and a social media superstar after a chance encounter with Connor just before his suicide leads others to believe Evan was his only friend. Evan is shy, lonely, and bullied for it. He has a chance encounter with Connor Murphy-- just before Connor commits suicide. Evan's life suddenly gets turned around, and suddenly he isn't invisible anymore to the girl of his dreams-- Connor's sister, Zoe, who believes...

Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rappler crowdsourced...

"Ever since she was a little girl, Abby Wilkes dreamed of her wedding, the day when she'd wear a pretty white dress and look like a princess.But that was before her life fell apart for the entire world to see. Her longtime boyfriend-turned-fiance;, Ben, unceremoniously dumped her--changing his status to single on Facebook--while she was trying on the most gorgeous Vera Wang dress for the big day. Six months and twenty pounds later, the usual remedies--cupcakes,...

"Megan Chernoff is a talented but unemployed copywriter in an identity crisis after the birth of her second child. Seeking a fresh start, she and her family move to New York City, where she meets Daphne Cole-a gorgeous, stylish, well-known momfluencer. To Meg's surprise and delight, Daphne shows an inordinate amount of interest in Meg, showering her with compliments, attention, gifts, and all the perks that come with having a massive digital platform....

"What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self--a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience--she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent...

In an edenic community of wealthy Bay Area families, Molly Nicholl, a replacement teacher from a poorer, scrubbier version of California, arrivews in the middle of the school year and soon becomes intrigues by the hidden lives of her privileged students. Unknown to her, a tragedy from their middle school years continues to reverberate for 'her' kids. Among these are Callista, a hippe outcast who hides her intelligence for reasons of her own; Ryan...