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emilyrose724's review against another edition
Did not feel factual or like new information. I got bored.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
ljutavidra's review against another edition
Ova knjiga i ja se nismo sporazumele. Naoko, ovo deluje kao interesantan pogled na trenutno društvo smešteno u okvire društvenih medija (a posebno Instagrama). Ali, nažalost, knjiga nije ništa slično. Autor je jako želeo da napiše fikciju, pa je svako poglavlje počinjao sa nekom uvodnom pričicom kako je pronalazio ljude sa kojima je vodio intervjue. Nažalost, nijedna od tih osoba mi nije bila dovoljno interesantna i jedva sam privodila kraju svako poglavlje. Uz pojedine navode koji su spomenuti u knjizi bez izvora, do vrlo dosadnog pristupa ovakvoj temi, moram reći da mi ova knjiga uopšte nije legla i da ovaj kvazi naučni pristup meni nije "kliknuo". Očekivala sam nešto dublje, u smislu naučnije, sa aspekta psihologije ili sociologije, ali ovo je sve samo ne naučno, više naučno na prvi pogled, a kad se malo zagrebe nalazi se samo želja autora da napiše nešto ozbiljno bez pravog truda. Samo se nadam da se ovaj trend pisanja nefikcije kao malo dužeg seminarskog rada neće nastaviti i dalje.
seclement's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked some parts of this book, but really was really not keen on other parts. This was a difficult one to rate.
The first thing I will say is that the title is not a great match for the content. Not a big deal, but even the secondary title about self-obsession is misleading. The book does, in later chapters, get to the sort of self-obsessed communal narcissism that we seem to find ourselves in, but overall the book is more focused on the topics of philosophy, politics, and psychology.
The parts of the book about ancient philosophies of the self was fine. Nothing revolutionary in terms of content, but well written, accessible, and weaved into a coherent story. Not an easy task for such a big topic.
Storr then moves onto more modern philosophers, and this is where my biggest frustrations with the book lie. I heard an interview with the author where he said that he obviously had to make difficult choices when deciding where to focus. This inevitable when covering such a big topic (the history of Western philosophy on the self), but in the interview he felt he captured 99% of it, but by focusing on what happened in America, he hoped that he provides a unique perspective. I heard the interview after I read the book, and I have to say that this is the exact opposite of how I felt when reading it. I was so frustrated with the bit about Ayn Rand, the self esteem movement, overbearing parents, etc. in America because it was just so trite. How there is any person in the UK that can still try to blame the current state of the Western world largely on the shoulders of a very narrow subset of Americans is beyond me. And not just that, but focusing narrowly on the ways in which a small subset of people interpret their ideas - usually without having ever read those ideas in actual books - and then assuming that they reveal the origins of our modern ills. His commentary on neoliberalism in particular is just so very trite. That's not my perspective because I am a fan of neoliberalism (I am not), but because he simplifies and cherry picks the history of this topic so much. Choosing to tell the story with a few key players in America (really glossing over the role of Britain in the process), and then weaving that perspective into movements about self-help and self esteem. The experiences in the book relating to America are squarely centred on California, and particularly Silicon Valley, and much of his argument hinges on illustrating the concepts from psychological research into anecdotal experiences from those places. How anyone can act as though Silicon Valley is a prime location for studying how Americans think is beyond me. What we are left with is something that is just in so many books: a simplistic tale of the rest of the world as victims of this selfish movement born in America, and a revisionist history of Britain having been on track to become a socialist state that cares about the collective. I am exaggerating a bit when I say that, but only a bit. When I read that he felt that Friedrich Hayek was the thing that stop Britain from becoming this utopia post WWII, I nearly quit the book. It's a page right out of an Owen Jones book, where all of the many centuries of British history and British philosophers sort of fades into the background, and we all focus on the 6 years that Clement Attlee was building Britain into the kind, communal place it was always meant to be, and would be now, were it not for America's influence. I find this baffling as someone who lives in the UK and knows its history as well as its present. If nothing else, perhaps this actually illustrates one of Storr's key points: we are the narrators of our lives. Part of that is re-shaping history into a palatable narrative.
The latter chapters of the book were the strongest, where he starts to delve more into the nuance about the topics he discussed earlier in the book. His exploration of many psychological concepts was also well done, as he did not fall into the trap that so many popular books do, which is to cling onto particular studies and ideas and use them as a blanket explanation for everything. Ultimately it are these aspects that redeemed the book for me, and I am really glad that I didn't give up in the earlier chapters, despite my deep reservations.
Ultimately, though, I lose trust in an author's account of facts when I see some glaring issues, so I can't say that I was fully convinced of the key conclusions of the book. Yet the last chapter was so beautifully written that I wanted to forget about the rest of it. At the very least, you will leave with a sense that maybe you should stop being so anxious and disappointed when you fail to live up to your own self image, as that was never your true self anyway, but a story you told yourself. Selfie as a book was much the same for me - it didn't so much live up to the hopes I had for it, but it told a coherent story about how the Western world became obsessed with the self.
The first thing I will say is that the title is not a great match for the content. Not a big deal, but even the secondary title about self-obsession is misleading. The book does, in later chapters, get to the sort of self-obsessed communal narcissism that we seem to find ourselves in, but overall the book is more focused on the topics of philosophy, politics, and psychology.
The parts of the book about ancient philosophies of the self was fine. Nothing revolutionary in terms of content, but well written, accessible, and weaved into a coherent story. Not an easy task for such a big topic.
Storr then moves onto more modern philosophers, and this is where my biggest frustrations with the book lie. I heard an interview with the author where he said that he obviously had to make difficult choices when deciding where to focus. This inevitable when covering such a big topic (the history of Western philosophy on the self), but in the interview he felt he captured 99% of it, but by focusing on what happened in America, he hoped that he provides a unique perspective. I heard the interview after I read the book, and I have to say that this is the exact opposite of how I felt when reading it. I was so frustrated with the bit about Ayn Rand, the self esteem movement, overbearing parents, etc. in America because it was just so trite. How there is any person in the UK that can still try to blame the current state of the Western world largely on the shoulders of a very narrow subset of Americans is beyond me. And not just that, but focusing narrowly on the ways in which a small subset of people interpret their ideas - usually without having ever read those ideas in actual books - and then assuming that they reveal the origins of our modern ills. His commentary on neoliberalism in particular is just so very trite. That's not my perspective because I am a fan of neoliberalism (I am not), but because he simplifies and cherry picks the history of this topic so much. Choosing to tell the story with a few key players in America (really glossing over the role of Britain in the process), and then weaving that perspective into movements about self-help and self esteem. The experiences in the book relating to America are squarely centred on California, and particularly Silicon Valley, and much of his argument hinges on illustrating the concepts from psychological research into anecdotal experiences from those places. How anyone can act as though Silicon Valley is a prime location for studying how Americans think is beyond me. What we are left with is something that is just in so many books: a simplistic tale of the rest of the world as victims of this selfish movement born in America, and a revisionist history of Britain having been on track to become a socialist state that cares about the collective. I am exaggerating a bit when I say that, but only a bit. When I read that he felt that Friedrich Hayek was the thing that stop Britain from becoming this utopia post WWII, I nearly quit the book. It's a page right out of an Owen Jones book, where all of the many centuries of British history and British philosophers sort of fades into the background, and we all focus on the 6 years that Clement Attlee was building Britain into the kind, communal place it was always meant to be, and would be now, were it not for America's influence. I find this baffling as someone who lives in the UK and knows its history as well as its present. If nothing else, perhaps this actually illustrates one of Storr's key points: we are the narrators of our lives. Part of that is re-shaping history into a palatable narrative.
The latter chapters of the book were the strongest, where he starts to delve more into the nuance about the topics he discussed earlier in the book. His exploration of many psychological concepts was also well done, as he did not fall into the trap that so many popular books do, which is to cling onto particular studies and ideas and use them as a blanket explanation for everything. Ultimately it are these aspects that redeemed the book for me, and I am really glad that I didn't give up in the earlier chapters, despite my deep reservations.
Ultimately, though, I lose trust in an author's account of facts when I see some glaring issues, so I can't say that I was fully convinced of the key conclusions of the book. Yet the last chapter was so beautifully written that I wanted to forget about the rest of it. At the very least, you will leave with a sense that maybe you should stop being so anxious and disappointed when you fail to live up to your own self image, as that was never your true self anyway, but a story you told yourself. Selfie as a book was much the same for me - it didn't so much live up to the hopes I had for it, but it told a coherent story about how the Western world became obsessed with the self.
mahir007's review against another edition
5.0
تشير الأبحاث إلى أننا منذ عمر أربعة عشر شهرًا تقريبًا ، نبدأ في محاكاة الأشخاص الذين نراهم يظهرون الكفاءة عندما يكملون المهام . مع تقدمنا في النمو ، تبدأ "إشارات المهارات" في اتخاذ شكل رمزي أكثر ، مثل "إشارات النجاح".
في ماضينا (الصيد والجمع) ، كان من المنطقي تقليد تصرفات الصياد الذي يرتدي العديد من قلائد الأسنان التي حصل عليها من عمليات القتل ، أي حيث أظهر نجاحه بكفاءة عالية.
يبدو من المرجح أن ملابس المصممين وعمليات تجميل الأظافر باهظة الثمن والسيارات السريعة هي كفاءات اليوم التي تجذب الانتباه. تثير إشارات النجاح إعجابك بسبب كيفية تطور أدمغتنا. قد تجادل بأن الفيراري التي يمتلكها أحد المصرفيين الاستثماريين لا تشير إلى أي نوع من التميز الذي تهتم به - أو ، في الواقع ، أي نوع من التميز على الإطلاق.
هذا ، للأسف ، لا يهم ، لأن السلوك تلقائي وغير واعي. إنه يحدث فقط : وإذا كنت محصنًا بطريقة ما تجاه الإشارات التي تأتي مع الثروة ، فستكون هناك بالتأكيد مجموعة أخرى من إشارات النجاح التي لها نفس التأثير القوي والمخفي عليك.
.
Will Storr
Selfie
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
في ماضينا (الصيد والجمع) ، كان من المنطقي تقليد تصرفات الصياد الذي يرتدي العديد من قلائد الأسنان التي حصل عليها من عمليات القتل ، أي حيث أظهر نجاحه بكفاءة عالية.
يبدو من المرجح أن ملابس المصممين وعمليات تجميل الأظافر باهظة الثمن والسيارات السريعة هي كفاءات اليوم التي تجذب الانتباه. تثير إشارات النجاح إعجابك بسبب كيفية تطور أدمغتنا. قد تجادل بأن الفيراري التي يمتلكها أحد المصرفيين الاستثماريين لا تشير إلى أي نوع من التميز الذي تهتم به - أو ، في الواقع ، أي نوع من التميز على الإطلاق.
هذا ، للأسف ، لا يهم ، لأن السلوك تلقائي وغير واعي. إنه يحدث فقط : وإذا كنت محصنًا بطريقة ما تجاه الإشارات التي تأتي مع الثروة ، فستكون هناك بالتأكيد مجموعة أخرى من إشارات النجاح التي لها نفس التأثير القوي والمخفي عليك.
.
Will Storr
Selfie
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
chipskylar's review against another edition
4.0
Not sure I buy all the arguments but maybe it's because I value my own opinion over others because I'm self obsessed
daniellewalsh's review against another edition
3.0
Growing up and living in this ever-developing technological world, there is more and more pressure on being 'the best version of yourself' on the internet. When you step back and think about our mentality towards social media and how we use it, there's no denying that it has taken over our lives. The constant need for validation, or to produce fun, engaging, likeable content, whether it's for yourself or for others.
There were some segments of Selfie that I enjoyed more than others. How did we get to this point of self-obsession? This book takes you through the history, psychoology, neuroscience, economy, and technology to see just how we did get here.
I think the discussion around individualism and how it differs in other countries and cultures was fascinating. How this can impact suicide rates, as well as attitudes towards suicide. The whole nature vs nurture debate rings through again, with one section (pg 55) saying that the connections in babies' brains begin to cull at a rate of up to 100,000 per second to shape to the environment, pretty much pruning itself down.
The many avenues that this book takes gives an overview of different observation points of society, however each of these points is obviously much bigger than the small segments they are given. Within these segments there are stories of individuals that do not show or represent the whole of society, but are extreme versions of the 'selves' that we come across.
There were some segments of Selfie that I enjoyed more than others. How did we get to this point of self-obsession? This book takes you through the history, psychoology, neuroscience, economy, and technology to see just how we did get here.
I think the discussion around individualism and how it differs in other countries and cultures was fascinating. How this can impact suicide rates, as well as attitudes towards suicide. The whole nature vs nurture debate rings through again, with one section (pg 55) saying that the connections in babies' brains begin to cull at a rate of up to 100,000 per second to shape to the environment, pretty much pruning itself down.
The many avenues that this book takes gives an overview of different observation points of society, however each of these points is obviously much bigger than the small segments they are given. Within these segments there are stories of individuals that do not show or represent the whole of society, but are extreme versions of the 'selves' that we come across.
ninaw2's review against another edition
4.0
it was actually a very good read. learned a lot like the actual state/country wide effort to build children confidence when it didn't actually correlate with people who were "trouble" for society (if my memory of the book serves me correctly) also really interesting little stories especially about CJ. some slow parts but overall i really enjoyed it.
jenn756's review against another edition
4.0
This is a tour around the cultural history of the Western self - from tribal, to Christian, Freud, 60s spiritual enlightenment, neo-liberalism, tech perfectionism, and ultimately biological determinism - and all the insecurities picked up along the way.
He enjoys telling stories, so each section is accompanied by stories of the characters who've influenced the perception of self, as if they are the building blocks of how we perceive ourselves today, though his ultimate conclusion is it's biology all the way. If you were born neurotic you'll always be neurotic and no amount of self help well ever change that. Living in a neurotic environment, like spending your days devouring social media, may exaggerate a personality that was already there, but it won't fundamentally change it. There are plenty of shysters who will tell us otherwise, from Fritz Perls to Ayn Rand.
My personality type (and God knows what it is, I've never checked) was repulsed by the neo-liberal self and wanted to disown the tribal self and is too lazy to be the perfectionist self. The Christian self has left me untouched but I embrace the biology self, there is great comfort in you are who you are.
I didn't agree with him on everything, like coddling millennials have made them more narcissistic, a common trope at the moment but not one I have noticed in real life. If anything they seem less so to me than my generation. And other cultures, such as in the Far East seem just as obsessed with the whole selfie culture as in the West, yet apparently have been exposed to a different set of values and have not been 'coddled'. This I think is the biggest flaw of the entire book. That, and some of the people he describes are such extreme personalities they are caricatures of themselves.
He keeps throwing his own angst into the pot. He is neurotic and a loner he tells us often, but I think should be wary about bringing too much of himself into his writing because it skews good analysis. To be brutal Will, it's not just about you! He explains how Freud was blinkered by his own preconceptions, and then does the same thing himself.
But all the same, well written and he is a sympathetic interviewer.
He enjoys telling stories, so each section is accompanied by stories of the characters who've influenced the perception of self, as if they are the building blocks of how we perceive ourselves today, though his ultimate conclusion is it's biology all the way. If you were born neurotic you'll always be neurotic and no amount of self help well ever change that. Living in a neurotic environment, like spending your days devouring social media, may exaggerate a personality that was already there, but it won't fundamentally change it. There are plenty of shysters who will tell us otherwise, from Fritz Perls to Ayn Rand.
My personality type (and God knows what it is, I've never checked) was repulsed by the neo-liberal self and wanted to disown the tribal self and is too lazy to be the perfectionist self. The Christian self has left me untouched but I embrace the biology self, there is great comfort in you are who you are.
I didn't agree with him on everything, like coddling millennials have made them more narcissistic, a common trope at the moment but not one I have noticed in real life. If anything they seem less so to me than my generation. And other cultures, such as in the Far East seem just as obsessed with the whole selfie culture as in the West, yet apparently have been exposed to a different set of values and have not been 'coddled'. This I think is the biggest flaw of the entire book. That, and some of the people he describes are such extreme personalities they are caricatures of themselves.
He keeps throwing his own angst into the pot. He is neurotic and a loner he tells us often, but I think should be wary about bringing too much of himself into his writing because it skews good analysis. To be brutal Will, it's not just about you! He explains how Freud was blinkered by his own preconceptions, and then does the same thing himself.
But all the same, well written and he is a sympathetic interviewer.