Author: Nicholas Carr
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa
Rating: 5/5 stars
This month’s adult book was not on my radar at all, but I’m so very happy I stumbled upon it. Superbloom is the January 2025 release from author Nicholas Carr, and I found it just fascinating. It encompasses history, sociology, and psychology, and at less than 300 pages, is a decently quick read. As a bookseller, I’ve been noticing the rise in popularity of books like The Anxious Generation and Dopamine Nation, and I think Superbloom fits right into that conversation too.
Carr begins the book by outlining how communication and information has changed over the course of history. Smoke signals and letter writing gave way to the telegram and radio, and those have now given way to the internet, social media, and smartphones. As the book’s subtitle alludes to, the assumption was that better means of communication would bring about more understanding, more peace and goodwill. Instead, what Carr returns to again and again is that as those methods have become more and more efficient, other values have gotten left behind: a sense of agency, a sense of privacy, a sense of decency. His examples extend from social media’s News Feeds and texting’s predictive text to the emergence of artificial intelligence. Technology is now so fast and so easy – so efficient – but is it just leading to more envy and bitterness?
My one small complaint with this book is the ending. I would have liked more of a summary and a conclusion, but it felt rather abrupt, like the author ran out of time. The rest of the chapters, though, are so interesting and thought-provoking. The book isn’t overly alarmist or preachy either; it’s just a well-written, well-researched analysis of where we are today. I really enjoyed this book, and I know that any of Carr’s future books will definitely be on my radar now.
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