Sinan Aral - The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--And How We Must Adapt

With his precision science and rollicking narrative storytelling, Sinan Aral, the director of MITs Initiative on the Digital Economy, takes us on his fascinating twenty-year journey as one of the first and most prescient scholars of social media. He explains how social media impacts our democracy, disseminates truth and lies, propagates hate and makes people fall in love, hooks us neurologically and emotionally, and connects us all, for better or worse. Is social media a boon for society or a curse? The answer is complex, and youll have to read The Hype Machine to find out.

R ICHARD S TENGEL , former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, former editor of Time, and author of Information Wars and A Long Walk to Freedom

It reads like a thriller, but its all too truea thoughtful, well-researched, and timely look at how the structure of media changes the structure of our lives. Its time we took action and amplified the ideas that truly matter.

S ETH G ODIN , author of This Is Marketing

Brilliant! Arals masterful integration of science, business, law, and policy presents a powerful, accessible explanation of how social media affects all of us. Whether you simply want to understand the how and why, or need to make business or policy decisions, this is a must-read!

F OSTER P ROVOST , NYU Stern School of Business, author of Data Science for Business

Sinan Aral is a scientist and entrepreneur, and his unique perspective makes him the perfect guide to the world we live in today. From ads to fake news, The Hype Machine is the best critical foundation for understanding the connected world and how we might navigate through it to a better future.

H ILARY M ASON , founder and CEO of Fast Forward Labs, data scientist in residence at Accel, and former chief scientist at Bitly

If you want the truth about falsehoods, real information about misinformation, and rigorous analysis of hype, this is the book for you. Nobody knows better than Sinan Aral how ideas spread online, and in these pages hes distilled a brilliant career into a fascinating read. Dont miss it if you care about how the Internet is changing our world.

A NDREW M C A FEE , MIT, author of More from Less and bestselling co-author of The Second Machine Age

In this book, Sinan Aral, one of the worlds leading computational social scientists, tackles one of the great challenges of our time: how to reengineer digital technology to better serve society. Authoritative, comprehensive, nuanced, and engaging, The Hype Machine is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got here and how we can get somewhere better.

D UNCAN W ATTS , University of Pennsylvania, author of Six Degrees and Everything Is Obvious

The Hype Machine explains how social media changes who we know, what we do, and even how we think. As the world relies even more heavily on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic and the upsurge against racism and police violence, he helps us understand how digital technology will change our future, and what individuals, companies, and society should do differently to adapt and thrive.

D AVID K IRKPATRICK , founder and CEO of Techonomy and author of The Facebook Effect

The most important book of the year! Our friendships, economy, and society now depend on billions of social media connections around the world and no one on the planet understands them better than Sinan Aral. In this lively, engaging masterpiece, drawing on his twenty years of pioneering research, Aral separates hype from reality, clarifies our most pressing challenges, and explains how we must respond.

E RIK B RYNJOLFSSON , director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and bestselling co-author of The Second Machine Age

In a sea of books about social media, this is the one to read. Sinan Aral understands the new social age like no one else, and The Hype Machine offers the single best examination of how social media works, what it does to us, and how we can make it better for consumers, citizens, and democracies. In short, it offers solutions for making social media social again.

C LINT W ATTS , author of Messing with the Enemy

Is social media a force for good or evil? Sinan Aral deconstructs the Hype Machine and takes us on a breathtaking journey through the economics, technology, and behavioral psychology that shape it. When lies spread faster than facts, how do we ensure the integrity of markets and elections? If you want to understand how we can capture the promise of social media and avoid its peril, read this!

M ARIA R ESSA , CEO of Rappler and a Time Person of the Year for 2018

Everyone has a theory about social media, but Sinan Aral brings the scienceand the storytelling. The Hype Machine is an immensely interesting, informative, and provocative look at the driving forces of some of the biggest technological questions of our time, and how theyll play out in the future of our democracy.

E LI P ARISER , bestselling author of The Filter Bubble

The Hype Machine is a riveting story of social medias impact on how we vote, date, and shopand thus how we live. With our democracy in the crosshairs, and tech companies controlling our screens, leading expert Sinan Aral pulls back the curtain on the digital tools used to direct the flow of influence in society. Part spy novel and part science thriller, it is an essential guide to ensuring our digital future.

J ONAH B ERGER , Wharton, bestselling author of Contagious,Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst

Full of rigor and insight, The Hype Machine tackles some of the most pressing policy questions of the Digital Age while keeping you on the edge of your seat (an unlikely combination). Its a must-read for policymakers, business executives, and parents alike.

DJ P ATIL , former U.S. Chief Data Scientist

The Hype Machine is a meticulous dissection of social media and how it affects our lives. Aral gives us a much-needed framework for understanding what happened in the 2016 election, and what will likely happen again if nothing changes.

S COTT G ALLOWAY , bestselling author of The Four and co-creator and co-host of Pivot

In a timely and far-reaching book, Aral carefully and deftly examines the promise and peril of our social media environment, separating fact from fiction as well as offering thoughtful and practical suggestions for moving forward in our new world. The Hype Machine will be of interest to anyone concerned with building a healthy public sphere in the twenty-first century.

Z EYNEP T UFEKCI , author of Twitter and Teargas