Restoring Our Sanity Online: A Revolutionary Social Framework
Mark Weinstein
Wiley (September 2024)

How and why “Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad.”

Mark Weinstein asserts that “the current genre of social media is a far cry from its birthright. We have a crisis on our hands, and most of us know it. We feel trapped and unprotected. Tech giants rule with impunity. We’re trapped in a distorted landscape, pawns of their overt and nefarious manipulations.”

He invites you to join him on a journey to discover an authentic, uplifting, and achievable transformation of social media and Big Tech. This is the game plan for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible? Read on.”

These are among the passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the nature and scope of Weinstein’s coverage:

o Introduction (Pages xi-xii)
o The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism (1-3)
o Web 2 (3-5)
o Big Tech’s Spin Cycle (20-24)
o Big Age: Regenerative and Organic Farming (27-29)

o Web 3 (31-37)
o Debunked: Data Privacy, Anonymity, Freedom from Targeting (43-44)
o Promise Unfulfilled: Implausible Revenue Models (45-47)
o What Is Conscious Capitalism? (52-57)
0 User Advisory Board (69-72)

o It’s Complicated (82-83)
o Putting What’s Known to Good Use (88-90)
o Restoration Networking Solutions to Protect Kids and Teens, and, How Parents Can Protect Their Kids Right Now (96-99 and 99-102)
o How to Protect Your Mental Health on Social Media Right Now (104-107)
o (AI Is Not New, But It Has Crossed the Rubicon (109-113)

o What Exactly Are Bots and Trolls? (116-121)
o Seven Lessons for the Street Fight (135-140)
o The Restoration Networking Constitution (142-151)
o Taming IA (165-166)
o Appendix D: Seven-Point Prescription to Vanquish Bots and Trolls (175-178)

The information, insights, and counsel that Mark Weinstein provides in Restoring Our Sanity Online will help prepare those who read it to become productively engaged in efforts to (in Weinstein’s words) discover and then implement “an authentic, uplifting, and achievable transformation of social media and Big Tech.”

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Restoring Our Sanity Online: First, highlight key passages Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and whatever you have learned that will be most helpful. Pay special attention to Weinstein’s comments at the beginning and conclusion of each chapter.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite your frequent reviews of key material later.