The Dark Side of Our Digital World

An all-in-one guide to understanding and managing the dark side of our digital lives.

What if our assumptions about information and the Internet are not as clear-cut as we would like to believe? We have all confronted a failed search, the frustration of looking at an online troll’s obnoxious response in an online forum, malware-infested software, the loss of privacy, and more. But it’s always the obvious things that we take for granted, like consciousness. Or time. Or ‘information’.

A clear definition of information is seemingly simple, but when looked at closely, there is more to it. As ubiquitous as water or air, but when it’s compromised or misused, it suddenly becomes noticeable. This book will attempt to examine some of the issues related to information that seem to belie its benign nature and will view some of the information “pathologies,” or negative consequences, inherent to this digital information age. Many of these pathologies are hiding in plain sight:

• Fake news
• Misinformation
• Disinformation
• Information overload
• Surveillance and privacy loss
• Cyberbullying
• Hacking and other cybersecurity flaws
• Online and IT behavioral conditioning

Without a concept to better describe what is happening to us, we may be doomed to repeat these patterns of destructive behavior, manipulated by external forces and conditions into acting in predictable ways, or becoming willing participants giving in to our own worst impulses. The book will help readers identify strategies to understand, avoid, and handle these problems.