There was a time when the internet was just a tool to access a lot of information and the mobile phone was a phone to call from anywhere. Later, many assumed that, in addition to making our lives easier, these innovations would lead us to a freer, decentralized, fairer, and better informed society. But one day, looking up from the screen, they discovered a world dominated by hulking companies, more polarized, where privacy is threatened and fascinating inventions like artificial intelligence pose existential challenges. Connected life, but not only, has also led us to great fragmentation: the bankruptcy of basic consensus and a return to tribes entrenched in large bubbles.
In this transit “from cyber-enthusiasm to techno-concern”, in the words of the philosopher Daniel Innerarity, the citizen needs guides to get a full idea of this process, its risks and opportunities. But he finds a difficulty that has to do with another type of fragmentation: the atomized nature of the information on such a complex matter makes him feel that he would need to read dozens of books and thousands of articles to do so. Well, the impression when reading the great fragmentation is that Ricardo de Querol has done much of that work for him. The essay, based on an impressive number of readings, offers a panoramic distillate, with its edges and nuances, of the great revolution underway.
De Querol’s book thus functions as an exhaustive instruction manual for this new era and a preview, at the hopeful end, of what can come. The reader eager to understand why he reads different news from his neighbor on the same platform, what dangers there are in investing in cryptocurrencies or if his work is likely to be carried out by a robot, can find clear explanations. Without excessive technicalities, focusing on how all this affects his daily life.
The book focuses on not-so-known characters who would one day deserve to be in the history books as pioneers in opening great debates.
The changes that he analyzes are not few or superficial the great fragmentation. The economy has become a game of giants where the winner takes all. Record sales have plummeted, but live music has been revitalized. The series have become the great artistic manifestation of our time. Media audiences have been fragmented and, disturbingly, even a shared account of events has been lost. But it has also been shown that if something can save newspapers, after years of unbridled search for clicks, it is the commitment to quality and the recovery of reader confidence.
Beyond some of the famous protagonists of this revolution —Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk— the book also focuses on stories such as that of the engineer Timnit Gebru fired by Google or Frances Haugen, the deep Throat From Facebook. Not so well known by the general public, they deserve to be one day in the history books as pioneers in opening some of the debates that will mark the coming decades.
There is also a section dedicated to the great survivor of this earthquake. An object that was at the origin of the success of one of the new titans (Amazon) and that has resisted, almost without erosion and against all odds: the physical book. “The experience of reading on paper is still very pleasant, as well as conducive to concentration. There is only the book and you, nobody bothers you”, recalls Querol. Whether in printed or digital format, the reading of the great fragmentation is a stimulating invitation to reflect on this new era. An experience from which no one, whether they feel like a digital ignorant or a technological guru, will leave without learning new things.
Author: Ricardo de Querol.
Editorial: Arpa Publishers, 2023.
Format: soft cover (280 pages, 19.90 euros).
You can follow BABELIA on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
