Boy Kings: Difference between revisions
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URL = http://theboykings.com/ | URL = http://theboykings.com/ | ||
=Interview= | |||
==Frequently Asked Questions about The Boy Kings== | |||
Q: Why did you write this book? | |||
A: The years 2005-2010, during which social media exploded, transformed human experience. We all began living our lives largely online, through our devices, broadcasting to a vast audience of people distant from us, yet virtually connected. I wrote to reflect on this: how this change felt and what it may mean. | |||
Q: Is this book funny, though? I only like to read things that are funny. | |||
A: Yes, it’s funny. It’s a dark comedy of sorts. | |||
Q: What is misunderstood about this book? | |||
A: This is not a book about Mark Zuckerberg; it is about social technology and its impact on the world. And while The Boy Kings narrates Facebook's rise, the main character in the book is power itself. Wherever you see a power struggle, something interesting is happening: people are competing to determine the future and what it looks like. | |||
Q: Why is everyone always talking about Facebook? | |||
A: Facebook has made itself central to many people's lives. Millions of people route their personal data and relationships through the site, giving the company the ability to shape the world in deep ways as our lives become increasingly virtual: determining how we connect to the world, what we learn about it, what we see and don’t. The Boy Kings explains how Facebook came to have the power to shape the world. | |||
Q: Why is Thrax a star of this book and not Mark? I thought Facebook was about Mark. | |||
A: Facebook is about Mark’s wishes and product vision. The character of Thrax is a metaphor for the type of hacker valorized by Silicon Valley in the late 2000s. At the dawn of the social media age, the hacker needed to be a character as well as a coder, because social media is essentially about broadcasting oneself to the world. | |||
Q: It seems like you never get really emotional in the book, even though you are describing all these complicated situations. Why? | |||
A: One of the things the book is about is the way in which social media asks us to create characters for digital consumption. Occasionally at work I felt upset or anxious, but generally I had to stay calm and "in character" in order to stay focused on the goal of figuring out how the story of Facebook was unfolding and what would happen next. And just as when you are using Facebook you watch patiently as information scrolls by, in real life I found myself watching as events happened, thinking about how it all fit together. | |||
Q: Why did you write a book about your time at Facebook instead of sharing your experience on Facebook? | |||
A: Social media is one way of sharing experiences. Books are another good way to share experiences and analysis, when you want to go deeper. | |||
Q: What are you doing now? | |||
A: I am writing a play with my friend Ashley, in which each character in the play embodies a different mode of connection and connectivity issues. I travel a lot and spend time with friends. I am sort of in <3 with everything right now." | |||
(http://theboykings.com/faqs/) | |||
Revision as of 10:43, 31 March 2013
= "The Boy Kings is a memoir of Silicon Valley from 2005-2010, narrating the rise of social media and the ways it changed the world".
URL = http://theboykings.com/
Interview
Frequently Asked Questions about The Boy Kings
Q: Why did you write this book?
A: The years 2005-2010, during which social media exploded, transformed human experience. We all began living our lives largely online, through our devices, broadcasting to a vast audience of people distant from us, yet virtually connected. I wrote to reflect on this: how this change felt and what it may mean.
Q: Is this book funny, though? I only like to read things that are funny.
A: Yes, it’s funny. It’s a dark comedy of sorts.
Q: What is misunderstood about this book?
A: This is not a book about Mark Zuckerberg; it is about social technology and its impact on the world. And while The Boy Kings narrates Facebook's rise, the main character in the book is power itself. Wherever you see a power struggle, something interesting is happening: people are competing to determine the future and what it looks like.
Q: Why is everyone always talking about Facebook?
A: Facebook has made itself central to many people's lives. Millions of people route their personal data and relationships through the site, giving the company the ability to shape the world in deep ways as our lives become increasingly virtual: determining how we connect to the world, what we learn about it, what we see and don’t. The Boy Kings explains how Facebook came to have the power to shape the world.
Q: Why is Thrax a star of this book and not Mark? I thought Facebook was about Mark.
A: Facebook is about Mark’s wishes and product vision. The character of Thrax is a metaphor for the type of hacker valorized by Silicon Valley in the late 2000s. At the dawn of the social media age, the hacker needed to be a character as well as a coder, because social media is essentially about broadcasting oneself to the world.
Q: It seems like you never get really emotional in the book, even though you are describing all these complicated situations. Why?
A: One of the things the book is about is the way in which social media asks us to create characters for digital consumption. Occasionally at work I felt upset or anxious, but generally I had to stay calm and "in character" in order to stay focused on the goal of figuring out how the story of Facebook was unfolding and what would happen next. And just as when you are using Facebook you watch patiently as information scrolls by, in real life I found myself watching as events happened, thinking about how it all fit together.
Q: Why did you write a book about your time at Facebook instead of sharing your experience on Facebook?
A: Social media is one way of sharing experiences. Books are another good way to share experiences and analysis, when you want to go deeper.
Q: What are you doing now?
A: I am writing a play with my friend Ashley, in which each character in the play embodies a different mode of connection and connectivity issues. I travel a lot and spend time with friends. I am sort of in <3 with everything right now." (http://theboykings.com/faqs/)