Facebook

chain of connections could connect them to any random human among the (then) world population of 1.5 billion with only five personal introductions, beginning with one's personal network of friends and then proceeding to the next person's introduction. In the story, one of the subjects-a Hungarian intellectual like the author-met the challenge of making the connection to a random riveter at the Ford Motor Company. Karinthy's concept kicked around the social-science world for some decades until some researchers in the 1960s and '70s tried to prove it with the limited computer power of their time. In 1967, sociologist Stanley Milgram published a Psychology Today article on what was then called the "small world problem." In a study published two years later, he and his coauthor tried to connect random people in Nebraska with those in Boston and found that "the mean number of intermediaries between starters and targets is 5.2." In 1990, the concept would gain wide cultural currency when playwright John Guare used it to illuminate his eponymous play, Six Degrees of Separation, adapted for film in 1993.

 

Weinreich's implementation, though inspired by the Six Degrees theory, actually concentrated on two or three degrees of separation. "More often than not, I can meet the people I don't know through those I do know," he told the crowd at the Puck Building. For centuries, people have been using their friends and acquaintances to make such connections, but it had always been hit or miss. "Today we hope to change that," he promised, "with a free, web-based networking service." He compared it to putting your Rolodex online-and connecting to everyone else's Rolodex. "If everyone uploads their Rolodex, you should be able to traverse the world," he gushed.

 

On that cold night in January, Weinreich expressed a mission that was astounding to consider: connecting the world in a single network. "Imagine for a moment that we had not just you in the database but every Internet user in

manipulative fake news, pro-Trump Russian propaganda, and hate speech. Publishers Weekly

Steven Levy s all-access Facebook reflects the reputational swan dive of its subject. Levy is the dean of tech writers; Facebook s brass gave him the run of the C-suite. The result is evenhanded and devastating. San Francisco Chronicle

Fresh, up-to-date, and insider-ish. The Economist

Respected tech writer Levy (In the Plex, 2011) presents the definitive story of Facebook. . . . Given unfettered access to Zuckerberg and the company during the last three years, Levy is able to illustrate how the company developed under the influence of Zuckerberg s acknowledged hypercompetitiveness. . . . This absorbing book will inspire important conversations about big tech and privacy in the twenty-first century. Booklist

The value of this book lies in its putting together all the pieces of Facebook s privacy troubles, algorithms, and the Cambridge Analytica affair. Library Journal

Steven Levy, who reported [on Facebook] over three years, is one of the best writers about tech, period. His access through the company and around it is impressive. The Information, February Book Club Pick

I highly recommend this . . . It is probably the best read on a high-tech big wig that is changing history that I ve read in a long, long, long time. I heartily and highly recommend it. Bring some popcorn with you when you read it. Neil Cavuto on Cavuto: Coast to Coast

[Levy] consistently demonstrates how he s driven by the facts rather than by any philosophical or political agenda. And that s exactly why, once Levy has layered on so many new facts about Facebook, its principals, and its various lapses and betrayals, piling on the details from hundreds of interviews, putting all the pieces of every part of Facebook s story into one place, his most evenhanded conclusions are still damning. . . . What all Facebook s critics, and the tech industry s critics, will have in common is this: Going forward, we all will be citing stuff we learned from Levy s Facebook: The Inside Story. Reason

Levy portrays a tech company where no one is taking responsibility for what it has unleashed. . . . The book closes with a recognition that Facebook is bulldozing ahead with new innovations from Facebook dating to its Libra digital currency project while Zuckerberg continues to shrug off any ethical queries about his past behavior. Financial Times

In Facebook: The Inside Story, Levy turns his massively insightful gaze to the trajectory of Facebook from its birth, its dizzying growth, and its embattled present, when its reputation is extensively scarred. . . . All in all, Levy capably takes us into FB s office, and into the mind-sets of its engineers. He does so in a brilliantly readable narrative. Indeed, Levy s expertise at narrative nonfiction the use of scenes, dialogue, and other techniques, to create a story on the page is ample, and it shows in the smooth and pacy flow of this book; as does his ability to go beyond bits, bytes, and balance-sheets to map the mind-spaces of the techies behind Facebook, their ambitions, creative impulses, greed, and desire to succeed. . . . One of the (numerous) merits of reading this book: it makes you think about how your online self and networks are sculpted, at least in part, by people sitting continents away, in what ways, how the online self is grafted onto the flesh-and-blood one, and how the online self is manipulated, tweaked, even exploited. Take a bow, Steven Levy. MoneyControl.com

Wired editor Steven Levy uses tales from Zuckerberg s early life, pages from his handwritten journals, and encounters with company execs to add texture and color to the familiar Facebook origin story. He creates an intimate portrait of Zuckerberg s competitive nature and goals and how they have informed the company s zealous pursuit of growth over the last decade. It s a timely probe into the tech company s motivations around data privacy, disinformation, and corporate responsibility. Mashable

Steven Levy charts the novelty, the thrusting, and the hubris of Facebook, which in many ways reflects the personality of its still wholly dominant founder. He presents some extraordinary facts in a racy and riveting mainly chronological narrative. The Critic