Book Selection: The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media

After using the search terms "social media", "digital", and "Internet" on Amazon.com, I was able to come across three different books that I considered for the project. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, Digital Disconnect, and Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. After reading a few reviews, I decided to chose The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media by Jose van Dijck. In the reviews, most people said that even though the text can be a bit dry at points, it does posses a lot of valuable information about social media. On ProQuest, I was able to find a few critiques of van Dijck's work. This book talks about the rise of social media, while providing a historical background and critical analysis in the context of rapidly changing connective media. I feel like this books relates to our class perfectly and will contain useful information while moving forward in the class.

Wankel, C. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Choice, 50(12), 2218-2219