The Ties That Don’t Bind: The problem with Facebook’s global village
A comment piece from today’s copy of The Guardian. Read it here.
Author Archives: JamesH
Appearance on ABC Radio Australia programme this weekend
I’ll be appearing on a “BACKGROUND BRIEFING” programme on ABC National Radio in Australia this weekend about the Australian Government’s controversial plans for censorship on the net. Broadcast Sunday 9am, repeated Tuesday 7pm, and available on the net.
What can our Google searches tell companies about ourselves? Take this example.
In Tim Berners-Lee’s testimony before a House of Commons committee on internet privacy on wednesday, he drew attention to the potential for snooping on the data trial we leave behind on Google. “We use the internet without a thought that … Continue reading
Review: The Independent (UK), 7 March
An interesting review in Saturday’s Independent, by the author of The Play Ethic Pat Kane. Unlike some of the critics, Kane gets the jokes too. It’s not online yet, so here is is below. The Independent, 7 March 2009. Cyburbia: … Continue reading
Can Twittering be a Sin? Answers, please, in 140 characters.
A comment piece in tomorrow’s (UK) Independent. Read it here.
On Cyber-realism
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
Review: The Scotsman, 28 Feb.
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
Review: Financial Times, 28 Feb. “Cyburban nightmare.”
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
“Lost in Cyberspace”; Cyburbia makes front cover of The Week
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
The electronic diaspora as remainder
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? A response to Baroness Greenfield
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
Interview with Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 24 Feb.
An interview with Andrew Orlowski, conducted late last week and now published here.
Review: The Mail on Sunday, 22 Feb. “Invasion of the real cyber-men.”
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
Article in The Register, 23 Feb. “War, Web 2.0 and the fail loop.”
From Hezbollah to Twitter, a critical look what being on a continuous electronic information loop does to organisations. Read it here.
Review: The Observer, 22 Feb. “The good and the bad of digital dependency.”
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
More Contra Twitter: Scotland on Sunday, 22 Feb. “A Bunch of Twits”
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
Review: The Daily Telegraph, 21 Feb. “How Facebook changed our culture.”
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
Cyburbia in The Daily Star (Lebanon): Israel was out of the loop in Lebanon.
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.
Cyburbia in Private Eye
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
Review: Sunday Telegraph, 15 Feb. By Kenan Malik
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
Cyburbia in Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Feb
Interview about Cyburbia with Debra Jopson
Contra Twitter: We all need to be in the loop.
The Times (London), Times 2 Cover Story, Wed 18 Feb.