“Sometimes, it is hard to remember that Social Media came along years after the rise of the personal computer and the Internet, which Al Gore called the ‘Information Superhighway.'” John Yau begins his review of Matias Viegener’s 2500 Random Things About Me Too. Yau continues:

But like the highway in Jean-Luc Godard’s apocalyptic comedy, Weekend (1967), the internet is littered with refuse and ugliness of all kinds: overturned vehicles and violence…Some postings disappear while others don’t, and this has nothing to do with quality. The volatility of the situation drives many people crazy…I think of this group as the Guardians, the descendants of those who regarded the printing press as the work of Satan until commercial publishers began to print their slim volumes. The Guardians grieve over the loss of standards and publish their tears in peer-reviewed journals. But there are other poets and writers who flourish in this uncharted swamp, who want to hunker down and see what can be made of the goop we are all swimming in, whether we like it or not. These are the Witnesses, the thrivers in the muck. Matias Viegener belongs to this group.

Read John Yau’s full review of Viegener’s book at Hyperallergic.