Book Review: Writing on the Wall: Social Media—The First 2,000 Years, by Tom Standage

Abstract

Writing on the Wall: Social Media-The First 2,000 Years. Tom Standage. York: Bloomsbury, 2013. 265 pp. $26 hbk.In today's rapidly changing media world, is easy to be enamored by new technolo- gies and marvel at new platforms for sharing information. Digital natives, in particu- lar, cannot imagine life without Internet access or Facebook at their fingertips. Others decry the Internet's pervasiveness, fearing the decline of civilized society due to over- dependence on the web and social media.Tom Standage's Writing on the Wall puts social media in context. Although the media's reach is unprecedented, Standage describes its foundation as anything but new. The idea of sharing social information dates as least to Cicero, when the Roman elite used papyrus rolls and messengers as their Facebook walls or Twitter feeds, he reports.Debates over social media's impact on society, demands for its regulation, and even its ability to effect change are also rooted in tradition. Just as Plato worried that the written word would harm intellectual life, today some argue that the ability to just Google it is a dangerous crutch. Soon, critics contend, there will be no need to learn or remember much of anything.Such context makes Standage's book a fascinating read.Standage, the digital editor at The Economist, sets the stage with data on the rapid growth of social networks on the web. About 1.4 billion people were sharing informa- tion on social networks when the book was published, and the numbers continue to grow. The fascination with sharing is simply a part of human nature, Standage sug- gests. Today's Facebook users, for example, share news they think their friends will like. They comment on news from their friends. Both activities are much like those of Cicero and his pals who had scribes copy letters to send to friends outside Rome.The role of social media in the Arab Spring uprisings is well documented. But social media's role in revolutions is not all that new, as Standage's chapter on Martin Luther points out. The priest's in-your-face pamphlets were reprinted and shared among like-minded reformers, going viral in today's parlance. Although Luther may not have intended schism, the widespread sharing of his works was key to his fame and influence. New forms of media do not trigger revolutions by themselves, but they make easier for would-be revolutionaries to coordinate their action, synchronize opinion, and rally others to their cause, Standage writes. …