BOOKS: And Then There’s This

Remember the ‘flash mob” phenomenon of 2003, where by using the Internet hundreds of people were asked to gather in a public place for no apparent reason. Well the creator of the flash mob, Bill Wasik, has written a book: “And Then There’s This How Stories Live And Die In Viral Culture.” In this book Wasik examines then peculiar modern phenomenon of the “viral story.” If you noticed this type of story has gotten shorter, shallower and more absurd. It spreads quickly over the Internet and just as quickly dies. Why are we living off stories like this? What’s up here? Wasik means to find out. Wasik seems to be saying two things with his analysis. First viral stories become hot because of good promotion and second stories don’t become hot because they have great content. Essentially viral stories are massive publicity for nonevents. Those who know how to create the publicity on the Internet get the most attention. Because we are so addicted to the Internet and the massive amount of information that bombards us each day, we can’t see the “forest for the trees,” we can’t tell the good from the bad. The good story gets drown out in a sea of competing nonsense. But for some reason we like the nonsense. Wasik tries to sort all this out in a book that at times is witty and entertaining. The curious thing about this book is that it is written by a master of Internet publicity yet the book itself has not gotten much publicity.