Over The Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls - And How We Can Take it Back

(Hardback)

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This essential book is a rallying cry for women to recognize and reject the ways social media is being weaponized against us - and instead wield it to empower ourselves. Many women and girls are trying to unplug, from low-tech weekends to Instagram hiatuses and screen time alerts. But disconnecting from the influence of social media is way more complicated than deleting or restricting access to an app. In Over the Influence, Kara Alaimo demonstrates how social media affects every aspect of women's lives - from our relationships and our parenting to our physical and mental wellbeing. Over the Influence is a book about what it means to live in the world social media has wrought - whether you're constantly connected or have deleted your accounts forever. Alaimo shows why you're likely to get fewer followers if you're a woman. She explains how fake news is crafted to prey on women's vulnerabilities. And she reveals why so much of the content we find in our feeds is specifically designed to hold us back. But we can change this. Alaimo offers up brilliant advice for how to get over the influence - how to handle our daughters' use of social media, use apps to find the romantic partners we're looking for and bolster our careers, and protect ourselves from sextortionists, catfishers and trolls. Over the Influence calls on women to recognize and call out the subtle (and not-so-subtle) sexism, misogyny and misinformation we find online and use our platforms to empower ourselves and other women.

Reviews

Praise for Over the Influence:
A clarion call for thoughtfulness and action on a vital issue facing girls and women, Kara Alaimo's Over the Influence is a captivating must-read for anyone who cares about misogyny, the internet, and the confluence between them. It is also indispensable, impeccably researched, and eye-opening reading for any parent navigating social media with their childrenwhich is to say, all of us.
Kate Manne, author of Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women and Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny

Social media promised us a better, more connected, more empathetic world. Instead, its brought insecurity, humiliation, sexualization, and sometimes even violenceat least to women and girls. Thats the case Kara Alaimo makes in her important book, which everyone who has ever downloaded a social media app, or who cares about the future of society, should read.
Jill Filipovic, author of The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness

Over the Influence is the ultimate guide for any mom seeking to help her daughtersand herselfmore safely navigate an internet that is stacked against women. Ill be recommending it to all the parents in my life.
Nina Jankowicz, author of How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back

Author Bio

Kara Alaimo, Ph.D. is a communication professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She writes frequently for CNN Opinion about the social impact of social media and issues affecting women. A former communicator at the United Nations and in the Obama administration, she lives in New Jersey with her family. For more information, visit www.karaalaimo.com and follow her @karaalaimo.