Clifford G. Christians
In the blizzard of work on the new social media, this learned book is indispensable. Luminary contributors from philosophy and commmunications know how to make an arugment and clarify ideas. They judge virtual reality by the truth principle, and their smart thinking on it makes this provocative book distinctive. While lucid on social network technologies, the authors teach us that authentic living is central.
Annette M. Holba
Berrin Beasely and Mitch Haney’s edited book, Social Media and the Value of Truth, involves existential reflection for the 21st century. This collection of essays opens our minds and bodies to think about the nature of truth, experience, the self, and the other in a fast-paced, unreflective, instantaneous, and inescapably deceptive environment of the socially mediated virtual metaverse in which we make our home. This edited volume is a must read for students and scholars interested in understanding our environment philosophically; it aims at cultivating phronesis and praxis for living in a complex world driven by social media and where we find ourselves embedded with others.
Joseph W. Ulatowski
Whereas Socrates and Aristotle desired firsthand peripatetic conversations with the Athenian hoi polloi, members of the contemporary world seemingly prefer to wander the virtual meta-verse as a clandestine avatar unbound by moral or social norms. In Social Media and the Value of Truth, Beasley and Haney have gathered together an outstandingly erudite collection of essays by some of the most cerebral scholars among us. Whether it’s resistance to shedding our mortally bound coils, a celebration or denunciation of frictionless sharing, or inconspicuous consumption among members of the virtual village, contributing authors have tackled the most captivating questions of our socially mediated time. Ethicists, journalists, sociologists, psychologists, Tweeters, Pinteresters, Tumblrers, Facebook users, Google+ enthusiasts, and even those harboring disdain for all things associated with social media undoubtedly will find the content of this anthology accessible and full of provocative nuggets worthy of serious and extended reflection.