The Cyber Effect: An Expert in Cyberpsychology Explains How Technology Is Shaping Our Children, Our Behavior, and Our…

This book says that technology by itself is neutral. Technology can be used for good or bad purposes. She said that although some people know about some of the incredible great benefits of the Internet, some people are unaware of some of the dangers of the Internet. To a large degree, the younger a person is, the number of friends a person has on a social network increases. This is what a Facebook 2014 study revealed: For those over 65 years old, the average number of Facebook friends in 102. For those between 45 and 54 years old, the average is 220. For those people 25 to 35 years old, the average number is 360. For those 18 to 24, the average number is 649. When a child or a young adult has a large number of Facebook friends, we’re often not talking about an intimate group of friends. Many of these Facebook friends aren’t true deep friends in the real-world sense. They often don’t deeply know much and care about you. They are online contacts. Spending more time on social media can sometimes have young adults and children less socially competent, not more. In the real world, if five friends turn on a person, it is bad enough. Now image if one thousand of your Facebook friends turned against you, not many young adults and children would have the social skills to deal with that. Not many older adults too would have the social skills to deal with that too. The young adult or child can be unfairly cyber bullied and hypersensitive to criticism. A lot of times on the Facebook, the more friends a person has on Facebook, the more real world friends they don’t have.

I was drawn to this book because I felt as though there was something wrong with me. I spent a lot of time on social media but hardly ever posted anything. My posts were months apart but I kept looking at everyone's crap on a daily basis. After I read this book I asked myself,"why do I fill my time with other people's narcissism?" Mary Aiken opened my eyes a little bit and made take a step back.

Dr. Aiken skillfully examines all the ways in which regular internet usage affects the human pysche. From gaming and social media, to porn sites and radicalization, multiple examples are presented of ways in which every internet user is being influenced. The book is comprehensively documented, well sources, and provides dozens of case studies to help ease your way through the material. An extremely interesting read, especially when considering current political topics, Covid-19, and the upcoming election. Almost everything you touch in daily life is connected to the internet, do you know how it is affecting you?

Dr. Aiken is amazing. I follow her on linked in to follow her work. She’s my biggest idol! This book is just another amazing part of her incredible work. It’s super easy to read and she does an incredible job at explaining things fairly easy. It’s very informative and it changes a lot the way you visualize your life and the world.Thank you for sharing your amazing knowledge with us, Dr. Aiken!!

Wonderfully written book about the influence of internet access on behavior. I'm a college grad with a science degree and was expecting a book laden with dry research. Aiken presents the research in a way that is concise and easily digestible. Her claims can be mistaken for bias or received with skeptics from the layman because the results of the research and her conclusions are pretty significant. However, those familiar with science or at the least basic research methods will find it immensely insightful.

Good book! I bought this for my daughter who has my grand daughter and she is growing up in this cyber world. My hope is to add to my daughters ability to fully understand how our world of instant connection to 'everyone and everything" might affect her children and how to help them through it and keep them safe.

I chose this book for philosophy club and it was very informative. It is interesting to see how slowly we allow these things to invade our lives and manipulate us. I was saddened to read how people prefer to focus on their cellphones instead of the people right around them. What was specifically disturbing was the nursing mothers who were focused on their cellphones instead of their child.

Highly recommend. Interesting to see how The internet is changing our daily lives. Not pushy on her opinion. Easy to read. Recommend high school audience or older.

Let me start by saying I'm a professional Cyber Security specialist with over 30 years experience in the world of IT (aka 'Cyber'). I say this because I read a LOT of books on the topic and I have to say this must be the most interesting and informative book I love read on the topic in a long time!Indeed I've read the book 3 times already and will read it again. I've made panel notes and cite this book in my presentations. It really is that good!If you're involved in the cyber industry you must read this book. If you have children, you must read this book. If you're reading this review whilst looking down at a digital device... you MUST read this book.My role is to educate and inspire change in our cyber thinking. This book will help me do this.Buy it. I promise you you won't be disappointed.

Are there many things more important than this? I am not sure there are.It is appropriate that Dr Aiken's focus is on young and developing minds and consciousness.Everyone who has a brain, read it.

Bought this as I'm very interested in cyberpsychology and wanted to expand my knowledge. A very interesting read, though I do think Mary Aiken does come across as quite self-involved sometimes. Overall I would recommend to anyone interested in how we interact with and through the Internet.

An excellent, and thought provoking book - and probably one I should have chosen in hard copy rather than digitally!

I loved that this book read more like a thriller from the get go. Even the how to read this book and introduction felt like reading a novel rather than an academic read. Aiken draws beautifully from both her own expertise and real world examples. The only thing I disliked was that there was not more details about the real world example she provided.

Fascinating insight into the psychology that is behind all that we do online and through social media, gaming and the internet. Really up to date and evidence based. A great read that is also highly relevant to the way we live our lives.

What an eye opener!

A must read for parents and everyone else actually! Eye opening and thought provoking enough that it might change your life.

Excellent discussion of very topical issues which ought to be understood by anyone using the Internet. Highly recommended.

great read and very informative. Covers some many aspects of psychology and the cyber / internet changes that can occur in the behaviour of people when online.

As described and on time

this book provides much essential information. It is a ‘must read’ for everyone who had access to the internet.

Great choice.

Great insight into the journey of technology and it's impact across the ages

A very good read