The Cyber Effect

Author: Mary Aiken, PhD

I am a bit hesitant about this book after reading the prologue. She mentions in her prologue that she has tried to spare us stats and studies in an attempt to reach a wider audience – maybe a personal preference, but I prefer my non-fiction to be backed by stats and studies. She also gives this quote which raises some red flags for me:

On the cyber frontier, we need scientists who are prepared to nail their colors to the mast and back their own informed instincts. Of course we need evidence based studies over time, but how long can we wait?

All that quote does for me is seem to imply that this book is not using evidence based studies, and instead relies on her instinct, which I am not interested in.

Another red flag quote:

In the absence of longitudinal studies, I employ logic–a mixture of common sense and reasoning–then construct plausible arguments based on a body of knowledge..

She does make the point that she is doing so in order to start a conversation and have meaningful debates about behaviour online, which seems valid enough to me. It just seems logical to me to start conversations and debate based on something real, rather than self described logic and common sense.

I’ll try to put my concerns aside as I dive in, but I will also try to think critically about what I am reading and wont take everything at face value.

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Apparently I was not able to put my concerns aside.

I got a third of the way through the book but I think I will practice my second reading tactic of not feeling obligated to finish a book with this one. It had some good insight in the first few chapters and mentioned some interesting studies on the effect of addiction from the internet or video games for example. Maybe my thoughts on the prologue biased me against the book and I wasn’t giving it the attention or value it deserved, but the book feels too surface level and anecdotal.