Critical Theory of the Internet

A collection of essays on social networks as a form of social organization and political practice.

This collection, compiled for the Russian readership, includes Geert Lovink’s essays published over the past fifteen years in English language in Zero Comments (2007), Networks Without a Cause (2012), and Social Media Abyss (2016), as well recent texts written for Sad by Design (2019). Dutch media theorist, co-founder of the Institute of Network Cultures, and professor at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Geert Lovink discusses simple cultural phenomena such as selfies and commenting, as well as the Internet’s role in the development of contemporary democracy and social movements, inviting the reader to rethink our technology-assisted sociality in the age of the centralized Internet.  

The evolution of the Internet over the recent years has been disappointing to many, but is it really something we could not have predicted? How did the exciting idea of a decentralized network and anonymity give way to the centralization of platforms and commercial and state surveillance? How have our entire lives been squeezed into our smartphones which will become obsolete in one year? How can theory keep up with the development of the Internet? In Critical Theory of the Internet, Geert Lovink looks into the problematic symbiosis of social networks and social movements, presents his own concept of organized networks, and critiques some of the currently popular media theories.