Careless People (2025)

April 14, 2025 7:36 AM

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams. This is an inside look at the rise of Facebook. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg's reaction when he learned of Facebook's role in Trump's election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to "lean in." Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade--told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice.

posted by hydra77 (3 comments total)

The book that Facebook tried to block people from reading. It's quite a damning tale. I'm only partway through it, but wanted to start the discussion.
posted by hydra77 at 7:39 AM on April 14

I have no interest in more depressing subject matter (also, apparently Sandberg is some kind of sexual creeper? that was new), and yet, when FB tried to block it, I put myself on the super long library wait list out of sheer perversity.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:01 PM on April 16

Wynn-Williams herself kind of pings my radar as someone who is probably No Angel (her "focus" is now AI, which to me is the same as someone whose focus is crypto or internet sports betting), but just because her motives may be impure, that doesn't mean she isn't a reliable eyewitness. That said, I don't think I've done anything to endure a whole book about Facebook.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:29 PM on April 18