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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
What have we done to the internet?
And what has the internet done to us?
Extremely Online reveals how online influence came to upend the world, has demolished traditional barriers and created whole new sectors of the economy. By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, this book unearths how social platforms’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing and power. From how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetise their personal brands online, bored teens and their selfie videos reinventing fame as we know it, to how young TikTok creators are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline - the sis the real social history of the internet.
Taylor Lorenz is a journalist and technology columnist. This highly informative, narrative book looks at the rise of influencer culture from so-called ‘mommy blogs’ to social media as we now know it, explaining how monetisation happened against initial backlashes to the same and the battle between relatability and aspiration. What comes through is how little tech companies understand their products and how influencers rose in spite of them.
I picked this up because I’m a regular listener of the podcast YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT where Lorenz has made a number of guest appearances and she spoke in passing in one episode about the research she had done for this book on ‘mommy bloggers’ and the sexism they had faced at the time. I’ve been blogging in one form or another since 2002 (initially on Livejournal, which sadly only gets a passing reference here) and have been on social media since 2008, so I’ve looked on the rise of ‘social media influencers’ with a degree of bewilderment and yet also fascination.
What Lorenz does very well is pull together all of the history and put it into a coherent story. This is no mean feat given that there are a lot of strands here, including a number of social media platforms that ultimately became defunct combined with the fact that she traces how some of the biggest names in influencing moved platforms. There is also a lot of research here with extensive end notes setting out Lorenz’s sources which re very helpful.
The book starts with the blogging phenomenon of the Noughties when the newspapers seemed to be full of stories of bloggers - whether those focusing on parenting or food or travel - getting million pound publishing and film deals. Lorenz quite reasonably points out the sexism at play, particularly with the ‘mommy blogging’ phenomenon, where those women who started blogging to share their experiences found themselves the subject of vitriol as they started to pursue promotional tie ins and other ways of monetising their blogs to provide support.
Lorenz uses Julia Allison as a case study here - now largely forgotten, she started a blog documenting her life in New York as a way to try and secure a journalism career, realising that if she could keep herself in the media headlines then it would help her long term prospects, only to find that it brought her brickbats and shaming instead. Lorenz identifies her as one of the first influencers who had the misfortune to develop the model before social media took off. Interestingly, Lorenz also uses Paris Hilton as an example of someone who recognised the importance of celebrity and personal brand but who, unlike Allison, was able to parlay it into a television and film career and monetary value.
What Lorenz does very well is show the development of the monetisation process and how slow companies were to realise the benefits that influencer tie ins could bring to them but at the same time, how much influencers themselves had to hustle to get tie ins for cash rather than free products and how this in turn gave rise to collectivisation and the rise of management companies to hustle on their behalf. What also comes out is how monetisation initially developed despite the best efforts of tech companies with YouTube being the first to realise how assisting their content providers to make a living via a cut of advertising revenue could in turn benefit their platform. Indeed, one of the most interesting things about the book is how the tech founders first regarded their platforms - particularly Instagram, which held out against sponsored content and monetisation because it went against the founders’ principles until it was eventually taken over by Facebook, who saw the value of letting content providers go wild.
Lorenz gives a good account of the evolution of the different platforms, culminating in the rise of TikTok following its takeover of musical.ly. She also tracks the current big names in influencing and how they moved from advertising to forming their own merchandise and product lines while also learning from experience to diversify their offering across a range of platforms to avoid being stranded as platforms went under (MySpace and Vine being key examples here).
In terms of weaknesses, given the look at early successful bloggers I wished Lorenz had been able to interview some to get a retrospective view on what happened and where the industry currently was. To be fair, she may well have tried and been rebuffed, but it is noticeable how much the book relies on second hand accounts so when Lorenz does refer to interviews she conducted for her columns on the sector, it is all the more noticeable.
I also think it’s a shame that Lorenz doesn’t mention the role of fandoms in the rise of blogging. I guess this is because her focus is on the brand side of influencing (i.e. people who became brands in their own right from their initial activities) but there is an interesting story to tell about how bloggers within fanfic and fandom communities parlayed their success into publishing deals.
The reason I mention it is because she does talk about John and Hank Green, who became immensely successful in social media, but who were also very successful writers - John Green in particular having spectacular success with his YA fiction before he started vlogging on YouTube. I think this is why I was a little disappointed that livejournal didn’t get more of a mention because although it is now largely irrelevant, the focus on communities did lead to a certain celebrity in writing and book reviewing circles and arguably evolved and grew into what’s become known as BookTok.
Criticisms aside, it is a really interesting book and if you have any interest in tech companies or social influencing then this should be your starting point to learn more.
The Verdict:
Taylor Lorenz is a journalist and technology columnist. This highly informative, narrative book looks at the rise of influencer culture from so-called ‘mommy blogs’ to social media as we now know it, explaining how monetisation happened against initial backlashes to the same and the battle between relatability and aspiration. What comes through is how little tech companies understand their products and how influencers rose in spite of them.
And what has the internet done to us?
Extremely Online reveals how online influence came to upend the world, has demolished traditional barriers and created whole new sectors of the economy. By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, this book unearths how social platforms’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing and power. From how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetise their personal brands online, bored teens and their selfie videos reinventing fame as we know it, to how young TikTok creators are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline - the sis the real social history of the internet.
Taylor Lorenz is a journalist and technology columnist. This highly informative, narrative book looks at the rise of influencer culture from so-called ‘mommy blogs’ to social media as we now know it, explaining how monetisation happened against initial backlashes to the same and the battle between relatability and aspiration. What comes through is how little tech companies understand their products and how influencers rose in spite of them.
I picked this up because I’m a regular listener of the podcast YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT where Lorenz has made a number of guest appearances and she spoke in passing in one episode about the research she had done for this book on ‘mommy bloggers’ and the sexism they had faced at the time. I’ve been blogging in one form or another since 2002 (initially on Livejournal, which sadly only gets a passing reference here) and have been on social media since 2008, so I’ve looked on the rise of ‘social media influencers’ with a degree of bewilderment and yet also fascination.
What Lorenz does very well is pull together all of the history and put it into a coherent story. This is no mean feat given that there are a lot of strands here, including a number of social media platforms that ultimately became defunct combined with the fact that she traces how some of the biggest names in influencing moved platforms. There is also a lot of research here with extensive end notes setting out Lorenz’s sources which re very helpful.
The book starts with the blogging phenomenon of the Noughties when the newspapers seemed to be full of stories of bloggers - whether those focusing on parenting or food or travel - getting million pound publishing and film deals. Lorenz quite reasonably points out the sexism at play, particularly with the ‘mommy blogging’ phenomenon, where those women who started blogging to share their experiences found themselves the subject of vitriol as they started to pursue promotional tie ins and other ways of monetising their blogs to provide support.
Lorenz uses Julia Allison as a case study here - now largely forgotten, she started a blog documenting her life in New York as a way to try and secure a journalism career, realising that if she could keep herself in the media headlines then it would help her long term prospects, only to find that it brought her brickbats and shaming instead. Lorenz identifies her as one of the first influencers who had the misfortune to develop the model before social media took off. Interestingly, Lorenz also uses Paris Hilton as an example of someone who recognised the importance of celebrity and personal brand but who, unlike Allison, was able to parlay it into a television and film career and monetary value.
What Lorenz does very well is show the development of the monetisation process and how slow companies were to realise the benefits that influencer tie ins could bring to them but at the same time, how much influencers themselves had to hustle to get tie ins for cash rather than free products and how this in turn gave rise to collectivisation and the rise of management companies to hustle on their behalf. What also comes out is how monetisation initially developed despite the best efforts of tech companies with YouTube being the first to realise how assisting their content providers to make a living via a cut of advertising revenue could in turn benefit their platform. Indeed, one of the most interesting things about the book is how the tech founders first regarded their platforms - particularly Instagram, which held out against sponsored content and monetisation because it went against the founders’ principles until it was eventually taken over by Facebook, who saw the value of letting content providers go wild.
Lorenz gives a good account of the evolution of the different platforms, culminating in the rise of TikTok following its takeover of musical.ly. She also tracks the current big names in influencing and how they moved from advertising to forming their own merchandise and product lines while also learning from experience to diversify their offering across a range of platforms to avoid being stranded as platforms went under (MySpace and Vine being key examples here).
In terms of weaknesses, given the look at early successful bloggers I wished Lorenz had been able to interview some to get a retrospective view on what happened and where the industry currently was. To be fair, she may well have tried and been rebuffed, but it is noticeable how much the book relies on second hand accounts so when Lorenz does refer to interviews she conducted for her columns on the sector, it is all the more noticeable.
I also think it’s a shame that Lorenz doesn’t mention the role of fandoms in the rise of blogging. I guess this is because her focus is on the brand side of influencing (i.e. people who became brands in their own right from their initial activities) but there is an interesting story to tell about how bloggers within fanfic and fandom communities parlayed their success into publishing deals.
The reason I mention it is because she does talk about John and Hank Green, who became immensely successful in social media, but who were also very successful writers - John Green in particular having spectacular success with his YA fiction before he started vlogging on YouTube. I think this is why I was a little disappointed that livejournal didn’t get more of a mention because although it is now largely irrelevant, the focus on communities did lead to a certain celebrity in writing and book reviewing circles and arguably evolved and grew into what’s become known as BookTok.
Criticisms aside, it is a really interesting book and if you have any interest in tech companies or social influencing then this should be your starting point to learn more.
The Verdict:
Taylor Lorenz is a journalist and technology columnist. This highly informative, narrative book looks at the rise of influencer culture from so-called ‘mommy blogs’ to social media as we now know it, explaining how monetisation happened against initial backlashes to the same and the battle between relatability and aspiration. What comes through is how little tech companies understand their products and how influencers rose in spite of them.
