The website of James Harkin, author of Niche, Cyburbia and Big Ideas
Some critics are having trouble with my idea that there’s a new kind of non-linear storytelling in television and the cinema – what I call cyber-realism. Take Michael Pye in The Scotsman, for example: “It’s easy to assume the information … Continue reading
The novelist and critic Michael Pye writes an interesting review of the book here. In a generally sympathetic article, he argues that I pay too little attention to how the owners of places like Twitter and Facebook are manipulating us … Continue reading
In a careful review in today’s Financial Times, James Montgomery gives an elegant summary of what the book is about. He concludes that: “At times, Harkin’s writing displays the characteristics he decries in Cyburbia. He can be as opinionated as … Continue reading
This week’s edition of the British weekly news digest The Week elevates Cyburbia to its front cover, with a gloriously lurid picture of a man staring goggle-eyed into his iPhone and the strapline “Lost in Cyberspace: Is Social Networking Scrambling … Continue reading
A good article in The Economist this week confirming my argument in the book that our networks are wholly different from our friends. While we have an average of 120 friends on Facebook, according to Facebook’s in-house sociologist Cameron Marlow, … Continue reading
Does Facebook rot our brains, or just tabloid headlines? Earlier this week, the director of the Royal Institution Susan Greenfield was quoted as saying that social networking sites and other communication gizmos might “infantilise our brains.” Maybe, but only if … Continue reading
An interview with Andrew Orlowski, conducted late last week and now published here.
INVASION OF THE REAL CYBERMEN, BY CHARLES CUMMING 22 February 2009 The Mail on Sunday Cyburbia by James Harkin In common with many novelists who work from home, I spend about two-thirds of my day trying to dream up witty … Continue reading
From Hezbollah to Twitter, a critical look what being on a continuous electronic information loop does to organisations. Read it here.
Writing in The Observer, the journalist Rafael Behr understands that the book is not dystopian or anti-technology, but an argument against an idea of technology which “has emerged as the intellectual orthodoxy of the digital age.” It doesn’t argue that … Continue reading
Writing in Scotland of Sunday, the journalist Richard Bath uses Cyburbia as the hook in a piece criticising the Twitterati. Read the article here. I’m grateful for the plug, but I don’t quite argue that we’re “hard-wired to like Twitter” … Continue reading
In a very, very kind lead review in yesterday’s The Telegraph, the author and critic Nicholas Blincoe wrote about Cyburbia together with Bill Tancer’s book Click. This is an extract, or read the full review here: “Harkin’s Cyburbia leaps off … Continue reading
A comment piece I’ve written for The Daily Star in Beirut, adapted from the book and published on friday here. It’s since been republished throughout the Middle East.
Private Eye, 20 Feb- 5 March. Telegraph Twits. Last year we reported how Telegraph hacks are encouraged to surf popular keywords while writing copy for the online edition. Confirmation has now come from a surprising source – none other than … Continue reading
15 February 2009 Sunday Telegraph Cyburbia: The Dangerous Idea That’s Changing How We Live and Who We Are By James Harkin LITTLE BROWN, pounds 17.99, 274 pp Twitter is the latest internet fashion. For the uninitiated, it is a social … Continue reading
Interview about Cyburbia with Debra Jopson
The Times (London), Times 2 Cover Story, Wed 18 Feb.