The Boy Kings: A Journey Into the Heart of the Social Network by Katherine Losse

"What I was seeing was that social websites were playing upon the biggest open and unsolved wound in our society: the need to be known, the need to be loved....we yearn to be understood and loved for who we really are." --Katherine Losse

Ah, Facebook. Do you feel worse about yourself after looking at Facebook? Or maybe I am just friends with lots of people who take awesome vacations, eat super delicious food, and raise articulate, cute, and developmentally advanced children? Oh yah, and their husbands bring them breakfast in bed. Ah, maybe that's why I don't look at Facebook that often. I did buy some excellent locally made cheese at the Farmer's Market, so my life in the cheese department is going quite well this week. If you stop by, I'll share some with you!! It's a goat and cow cheese.

Onto the book. Losse was employee #51 at Facebook, and this book shows us her gradual disillusionment with the whole endeavor. She gives us a glimpse inside the Facebook culture which is kinda interesting. However, overall this book was not even so-so for me. It was hum-drum, and I can't recommend it to you at all.

I think Losse is onto something though. Being "connected" online is not the same as connecting in person. I'm more interested in what is going on in my friends' hearts than their vacation itineraries and dinner menus. As for the kid reports, one friend was much more honest in person when she said about her newborn: "Sometimes I wish he was still inside of me...that was easier" than what is posted and reported on Facebook. And then I held her baby which, because I passed on the opportunity earlier, had friends taking pictures of me holding the kid...which were then posted on Facebook...