And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture

Wasik's general point is that we're overwhelmed with so much information and entertainment from our web addiction that we can't see the forest for the trees, or rather it's the bazillions of twigs and leaves that prevent us from even seeing the trees, let alone the forest. And yet like the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant, we grab onto the passing meme of the moment -- what Wasik calls a short but sensational nanostory -- and naively convince ourselves we've discerned major truth, that is, until a week or so later we buckle under the next big wave and the next and the next. Whether it's the rock band of the moment or that day's political scandal or you tube celebrity, something or someone new is invariably crowding out of our minds who or what was hot yesterday. In his dissection of what it takes to be a great memetic engineer (someone who unleashes a wannabe-meme image, video, or text item into our viral culture), Wasik illustrates how nearly anyone can, within days, become a web celebrity. Andy Warhol's 1968 uncanny prediction that "In the future, everyone will [have the technology to] be world-famous for 15 minutes" has come to pass thanks to the internet. The encouraging news for fame seekers is also the discouraging news; thanks to the same technology, a new celebrity or meme will be upon us in an instant, and like the famously short-lived Mayfly, your fame dies as fast as it was born. Wasik describes his own cool experiments (the failures as well as the successes) in trying to change the world on a budget that barely gets to four figures, and his case studies are unfailingly amusing and inspiring. I was thoroughly charmed by Wasik, and challenged to improve my web- surfing and book-reading choices.

I'm sort of a ringer, because I got to read this book in manuscript and I contributed a blurb for its jacket. Moreover, Bill Wasik is my editor at Harper's magazine. But I'll win no points with him for this review. The irony of this book is that it's a brilliant examination of viral stories by a man who's proved himself a master of creating them -- consider the Flash Mob -- and yet has little use for them himself. He's not trying to sell you a business method. He's trying to understand why the "stories we tell ourselves in order to live," to paraphrase Joan Didion, have gotten shorter, shallower, and more absurd, from that of a high school senior who sued to be made valedictorian to the white noise buzz surrounding the amorphous ur-band -- one group of musicians interchangeable with another -- that has become the object of pop culture's Sisyphean self-consumption. In the hands of a lesser writer, this argument would become a scolding, but Wasik makes it brilliantly funny, without ever losing sight of the tragic dimensions he's exploring.

This is a weird book that is difficult to categorize. Not many of tried to do much thinking on how a new generation (the public) generates and consume media narratives and this is the first book to do a good job advancing the science. It is also one of the few books on the internet that I thought was both forward-thinking and intellectually honest. I'd like to think I am in front of this field a bit and seen some things that only a small group has thus far. Trust me, it's not all sunshine and kittens and I don't think many people have bothered to consider the consequences of what Jeff Jarvis calls "process journalism." There is a blurb on the back that says the book has a timeless quality to it and whoever said it is totally right. It could be The Image for my generation. The notion of process journalism, which I think is a stupid rationalization for lazy reporting - a way for blogs to abdicate responsibility for their actions - the way that we consume the stories we created ourselves like some oblivious ouroboros; all these things are discussed thoughtfully by someone with actual experience in the matter. In fact, I think it's the first time someone who knew what they were talking about has attempted to do so. It's short, definitely worth reading. A peerless book thus far. Bill Wasik digs himself well out of the whole he created by starting flash mobs a few years ago. He should be rewarded for this thoughtful, unique and important book.

This was a great read until the last three pages, where Wasik leaps from analyzing the behavior and life cycles of online audiences into suggesting we all take a time out from surfing the waves and, for once, reflect on ideas, consider multiple views in topics of discussion, perhaps, read a book or two. Certainly not crazy ideas, but after 100+ pages of making the point that crowds gather online via human nature, to suddenly say, "Hey, stop doing that," kind of makes his plea destined to be ignored.

There's a certain irony here. Bill Wasik has written a book about creating massive publicity for non-events. Yet the publication of his book - definitely not a non-event - doesn't seem to be attracting attention from reviewers. Wasik's book is a collection of stories about the way he created online buzz. In one example, he entered a contest sponsored by Huffington press where websites competed for the most visitors. Wasik was supposed to cover the event as a reporter but ended up entering and winning. In another chapter, he tries and fails to stop the buzz on an indie band. Wasik's point seems to be twofold. On the one hand, stories capture the imagination of the Internet world. While you're hot, bloggers wite about you and you're known everywhere. But these days stories have a really short shelf lne. On the other hand, the stories don't get famous because they have such great content. Theyget famous because people like Wasik know how to spread the word. For instance, Wasik created the Mob scenes where hundreds of people descended on a particular place for no reason at all. The book is enjoyable: fun to read with aIt would have been more satisfing if Wasik could explain why some stories go viral and some don't. How dos he know how to choose topics and create blogs that get attenton so fast? Is this a skill that others can learn? Recommended for anyone interested in the Internet, the arts, communication theory or sociology. It's a livng lesson.