Review shared on Goodreads. The author needs to work with an English speaker to produce a new edition which might gain a better rating. Translator or synonym program has clearly been used.

Did not love the theory on social media and what it does to us, I think there is both benefits and negatives.

Calvin Robbins, the author of Unsocial Media: Breaking Free from the Shackles of Social Media, is an IT professional.

The book walks us through the dilemmas of social networks, presenting us the cons and pros that follow our daily exchange on the internet. As much as our lives are made easier with technology and information are more accessible we also pay the price of that accessibility. Fake news, less spending time with your dear ones, being behind a device non stop is changing not only our habits, but also the way we live and enjoy.

In the book the author sheds light on social media algorithms, addictions, invasion of privacy and includes the topic of mental health as a response to enjoying social media .

I am not an expert, but I do enjoy knowing a little about the screen's mechanism since I indulged in them a few hours daily. With that being said I can say that for me this book felt too basic. I feel like it didn't provide in a way that was advertised or maybe it was me who was expecting too much.
I am sure someone, who doesn't know what is happening in the background, would benefitted from this. It might be that the book was written for an older generation than me (I am in my mid twenties), since there was a lot of mention of youngsters.

I’ve read books like this one before, so I find them interesting and actually helpful to stop the addiction!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

DNF. I hoped it would get better after the forward, but alas, it did not. The writing was bad. Really, really bad. Sentences didn’t make sense. Phrases were used that no one says. “Youthful grown ups”? What the hell is a youthful grown up? I thought I could breeze through this since it was short, but it was not meant to be. The terrible writing made it unreadable.

I misunderstood the premise of this book and thought it would be more of a self help book rather than a behind the scenes look into how misinformation is spread via social media however it was interesting.

Thank you for the arc.

I liked the premise of this book, given that social media use is on the rise and it clearly has a huge impact on the emotional wellbeing of a great number of people. Unfortunately I just did not find the idea was executed very well; whilst there were some interesting bits of information, it read more like an essay or assignment than a book. There were some good tips here and there, but a large proportion was common sense. I would like to see this book presented in a format appropriate for the younger audience, seeing as they are the generation which seem to be most at risk of being negatively impacted by increasing social media use.

I expected to love this book since I really agree with the premise. It just felt like a college research paper though. It would have benefited from a good editor, not in correcting errors (none jumped out at me) but making the text a more interesting and engaging read. It also lacked references and I was a little put off by the frequent talk of "youngsters" regarding younger folks on social media. It gave the impression that the author was elderly, though he does not seem to be. All in all, I didn't really learn anything or enjoy the read, though others may find much more to take away from it. Two stars for me, which Goodreads defines as "it was okay."

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

This excellent book delves into the problems and the advantages of social media, making it especially useful for parents. It is well-known that many parents who work for SM companies won't let their children near SM - for good reason! Anxiety, depression and lack of self-esteem seem to be growing problems for even young adults who use SM a lot, but it is even worse for children and teenagers. Cyberbullying, texting, stalking, addiction - the bad effects are end less.

Calvin Robbins has several suggestions for parents on how to safeguard their children from these nasty problems, which appear to be rising existentially. These include limiting screen time and previewing all shows and games to check their suitability. Also, be mindful of what your youngsters are watching! It was much easier for parents when they only had unsuitable magazines or books to worry about!

SM can affect adults badly, as well. Distractions from work, fake news, fear of missing out - all these affect adults. Robbins provides excellent suggestions to limit your use of SM, and observe what you are doing. In the end, he seems to think that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Do you really want to provide these companies with your data?

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

We all know about social media and data gathering etc, reading about it makes it more real! This book gives you good tips on how to limit your time and info you share. I know lots of people who have deleted FB accounts lately, dont think I'm ready for that though! I do try to limit on my personal page and find I delete old posts more than post new ones lol

I'm glad that I read this as I had no idea how much time that I actually spent a day on social media apps. So alarming! I've been telling all my friends to buy a copy and read it and work on reducing their time on social media!

Unsocial Media could have been a useful book, had the author Calvin Robbins considered his audience when writing it!!! The book reads like an academic dissertation without adequate or consistent referencing (there is some,) however the audience he needs to be writing for is the general public.

Therefore this proved to be a heavy read with lots of information about research studies and facts and figures. But without an appropriate education the statistics wouldn't mean much.

The information however, is good but there was a LOT of repeated info especially chapters 2,3,6 &7 which really could have been in one or maybe 2 chapters!!!