This is an amazingly funny book. Sort of like being tickled with a razor blade. You find yourself laughing so hard that you don't notice all the blood pooling around your feet. I must admit that Mr. Kobek was preaching to the converted. I use the Internet for only two things these days, hunting for books & hunting for music. I've never Fakebooked, Twatted or Instaspurted. When I Googly Eye my real name I take great pride in the fact that nothing comes up. I've never owned a smart phone & I only bought a dumb phone because car trouble taught me that I'd have better luck finding a living breathing space alien then I would finding a pay phone in 21st century America.
My co workers are addicted to Fakebook. I'm waiting for them to develop a smart phone with tentacles that just inserts itself directly into the users brain. Preferably through his or her eyes. I've no doubt that most phone addicts wouldn't hesitate for one minute to having their device permanently attached through their eyeballs.
About a year and half ago, I was sitting in a local mall food court with my two youngest children. I had left the table to buy them whatever it was they wanted & when I returned, I sat at the table with my back to the food court. My then 14 year old daughter said, "Poppy look," as she pointed behind me. When I turned around I saw every table filled with 1, 2, 3 or 4 people, all of them on their smart phones. None of them talking to each other. I thought to myself, "wow, if I were the protagonist in a 1950s sci fi film, this would be the point where I realized that the pod people were winning."
Since I'm 54, it's not difficult maintaining my distance from social media, because I don't particularly care. In fact, being a curmudgeon is probably expected of you as you get older & become more & more invisible. Luckily I like invisibility.
Mr. Kobek's take on 21st century celebrity is also spot on. Of course, I doubt that Oprah will be extolling the virtues of this book given the author's thoughts on Beyonce. I say this because I saw an interview between those two ladies just after Beyonce's whatever year Super Bowl appearance. Oprah told Beyonce that her performance at the Bowl game was "the point where art met God."
I almost swallowed my tongue when I heard that little tidbit of utter bulls***.
My old man used to say, "If these bastards could figure out how to bottle air they'd charge us for every breath." Of course I blew this off as the rantings of a grumpy old man. Now we have Vitality Air, a Canadian company who sells bottled "mountain air" to people in China for $14-$20 a pop. Of course, I laughed so hard I didn't notice all the blood squirting from my nostrils.
Now, buy the damn book. The actual book. The one with pages & ink. Screw Kindle baby.
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Diego Laurentino de Carvalho
A desmitificação da internet
Reviewed in Brazil on May 24, 2019
