The Twittering Machine Audiobook By Richard Seymour cover art

The Twittering Machine

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The Twittering Machine

By: Richard Seymour
Narrated by: Adam Bromley
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In artist Paul Klee’s The Twittering Machine, the bird-song of a machine acts as bait to lure humankind into a pit of damnation. Leading political writer Richard Seymour argues that this is a chilling metaphor for our relationship with social media. Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies, desires and frailties into data, and returning them to us as a commodity experience.

Through journalism, psychoanalytic reflection and insights from users, developers, security experts and others, Seymour probes the human side of the machine, asking what we’re getting out of it, and what we’re getting into.

©2019 Richard Seymour (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd Media Studies Social Sciences

Critic reviews

“Richard Seymour has a brilliant mind and a compelling style.” (Guardian)

“A brilliant, urgent, game-changing intervention.” (China Miéville)

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Loved every bit of it and will definitely be returning to it again and again. Challenged many of the assumptions that I had about the "twittering machine" and how far it has reached into our lives. It's a pretty dark book, at times even depressing, but a very necessary read.

Very important read/listen

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Great listen. Great ideas. Very compact exposition on topics. Much gold to review in the details for those interested in deeper concepts. Great for individuals who know a lot about the space already.

Packs a loaded punch

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