A01=Garrett Pierman
Author_Garrett Pierman
Category=JPHV
Category=JPS
Category=PDR
Critical Theory
Digital History
Digital Politics
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
eq_society-politics
Internet History
Technology History
Product details
- ISBN 9781666935578
- Weight: 327g
- Dimensions: 159 x 239mm
- Publication Date: 10 Oct 2023
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Garrett Pierman argues that the Internet, as it is structured today, is inhospitable to democracy. What began as a government-funded defense project became, with the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s, a network that makes it simultaneously easier for falsehoods to spread and more difficult for people to lose touch with reality. Many millions of Internet users have not encountered the online world as many scholars had hoped, as a place for careful democratic deliberation. The Internet is now a platform in which their fears and anxieties are exploited by corporations that have carved up digital fiefdoms. In these digital fiefdoms, fake news and lies are shared and consumed at speeds that far exceed our ability to sort fact from fiction, leading to instances of political violence once people’s lie-based fears overcome their better judgement. It should be of no surprise that the current Internet enables and encourages political violence: scared and overwhelmed users are the ideal denizens of digital fiefdoms.
Garrett Pierman received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Florida International University in 2022. . He has taught in the departments of Politics and International Relations, Computer Science, and for the Honors College.
