Review by Choice Review
Humphreys (Cornell) provides a view of how people have been transformed by social media. She discusses how mobile and social media are fostering a more narcissistic society and sees current social media as evolving from that of earlier times, such as diaries. She develops a theory of media accounting that involves media practices allowing people to document their lives and the world through the creation and consumption of media traces, which are vestiges of actions that allow for the sharing of meaning. "The sense of self that emerges from media accounting can be understood as the qualified self." Representations of selves are created to be consumed. Media traces about the self and others allow people to see things that they might not notice in real time. The book includes a focus on people sharing aspects of their lives, how media are outlets for identity expression, and media traces as tools for remembering activities and experiences. The practice of reckoning is discussed as engaging with media traces to understand the self in the world. The book concludes with a concern about increasing narcissism. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.--Charles Wankel, St. John's University, New York
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
