Hi all, I wanted to announce the publication of my book Disconnect. I have developed parts of this book at different AoIR conferences. Thanks for connecting and I hope you enjoy reading it. Best, Tero --- An urgent examination of the threat posed to social media by user disconnection, and the measures websites will take to prevent it DISCONNECT: Facebook's Affective Bonds By Tero Karppi University of Minnesota Press | 192 pages | October 2018 ISBN 978-1-5179-0307-7 | paper ISBN 978-1-5179-0306-0 | cloth Pointing out that platforms like Facebook see disconnection as an existential threat—and have undertaken wide-ranging efforts to eliminate it—Tero Karppi argues that users’ ability to control their digital lives is gradually dissipating. Karppi’s focus on the difficulty of disconnection, rather than the ease of connection, reveals how social media has come to dominate human relations. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tero Karppi is assistant professor at the University of Toronto. He teaches in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology and in the Faculty of Information. PRAISE FOR DISCONNECT: "Through its clever structure, Disconnect affectively lures the reader as Tero Karppi tells a convincing story of how social media sets the tone, mood, and modality of our everyday existence. Compellingly written, this is a must-read modern tale of engagement and disconnection." —Zizi Papacharissi, author of Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics "Disconnect is a timely, theoretically rich assessment of Facebook as platform and assemblage. Rhetorics of connectivity dominate Silicon Valley, and Tero Karppi helps illuminate and describe the complex, flickering patterns of connection and disconnection that envelop the networked users of such platforms. This is a valuable, accessible guide to the politics and poetics of Facebook." —Amit Ray, Rochester Institute of Technology "Disconnect could not have come at a more important time. Tero Karppi’s nuanced writing brings out the rich complexities of social media life and disconnection. This must-read book shows that walking away may not remove Facebook’s presence in our lives, but it reveals the limits of social media in our world and the business models that are built to keep us connected." —Jason Farman, author of Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World For more information, including the table of contents, visit the book's webpage: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/disconnect