Andrew Keen (born c. 1960
[Saracevic, Alan T. (15 October 2006)]
Debate 2.0 / Weighing the merits of the new Webocracy.
''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
'' ("Age: 46")) is a
British-American
British American usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, and the Isle of Man). It is primarily a demographic or histor ...
entrepreneur and author. He is particularly known for his view that the current Internet culture and the
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
trend may be debasing culture, an opinion he shares with
Jaron Lanier and
Nicholas G. Carr among others. Keen is especially concerned about the way that the current Internet culture undermines the authority of learned experts and the work of professionals.
Life
Keen was born in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...
, North London, to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family. He attended the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
, studying History under
Hugh Seton-Watson
George Hugh Nicolas Seton-Watson, CBE, FBA (15 February 1916 – 19 December 1984) was a British historian and political scientist specialising in Russia.
Early life
Seton-Watson was one of the two sons of Robert William Seton-Watson, the activ ...
, a British historian and political scientist.
Keen earned a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
in history and then studied at the
University of Sarajevo
The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the largest ...
in Yugoslavia. Having been influenced by
Josef Škvorecký,
Danilo Kiš
Danilo Kiš (; born Dániel Kiss; 22 February 1935 – 15 October 1989) was a Yugoslav novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator. His best known works include ''Hourglass'', ''A Tomb for Boris Davidovich'' and '' The Encyclopedia of ...
,
Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel '' The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War'', an unfinished collection of farcical inci ...
and especially the writings of
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
;
Keen relocated to America, where he earned a master's degree in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...
from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, studying under
Ken Jowitt. After Berkeley, Keen taught modern history and politics at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
,
Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Charlotte, North Ca ...
and the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...
. He currently lives in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
with his family.
Career
Keen returned to Silicon Valley in 1995 and founded Audiocafe.com,
which received funding from
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...
and
SAP. The firm folded in April 2000 and after the demise of Audiocafe.com, Keen worked at various technology companies including Pulse 3D, SLO Media, Santa Cruz Networks, Jazziz Digital and Pure Depth, where he was director of global strategic sales.
Keen stated in October, 2007, that he is working on his new book, tentatively titled, ''Star Wars 2.0''.
In 2013, Keen founded FutureCast, a salon-style event series hosted by the AT&T Foundry and Ericsson, which brings together start-up entrepreneurs, investors, and technologists to discuss the digital revolution. He is currently the host of "Keen On" show, a TechCrunch chat show.
Criticism of Web 2.0
In 2005, Keen wrote that
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
is a "grand utopian movement" similar to "
communist society
In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of co ...
" as described by
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
. He states:
On 5 June 2007, Keen released his first book ''
The Cult of the Amateur,'' published by
Doubleday Currency,
and gave a talk at Google the same day.
The book is critical of free,
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube,
Digg
Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launch ...
,
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
and many others. He prominently featured in the 2008 Dutch documentary ''
The Truth According to Wikipedia
''The Truth According to Wikipedia'', also referred to as ''Wiki's Truth'' ( nl, Wiki's Waarheid), is a Dutch documentary about Wikipedia directed by IJsbrand van Veelen. It was screened at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam on 4 April 2008 and ...
'' and was also featured in the 2010 American documentary ''
Truth in Numbers?''.
Keen stresses the importance of media literacy and claims that user generated blogs, wikis and other "democratized" media, cannot match the resources of mainstream media outlets. Pointing to examples like being able to gather teams together, travel to dangerous locations (sometimes spending years in the region) and having skilled and experienced editors oversee the process,
Keen forecasts that if the current Web 2.0 mentality—where content is either given away or stolen—continues, in 25 years there will not exist a professional music business, newspaper industry or publishing business and challenges his audience to question whether they value these or not.
Keen discusses often-overlooked problems with participatory technology. He describes the Internet in amoral terms, saying it is a mirror of human culture. "We see irreverence, and vitality, and excitement. We see a youthfulness. But we also see, I think, many of the worst developments in modern cultural life, and, in particular, I think we see what I call digital
narcissism
Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism exists on a co ...
, this embrace of the self. It's ''Time'' magazine's person of the year for last year was you."
[New Book Looks at the Internet's Impact on American Life](_blank)
''PBS NewsHour
''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.
Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the pro ...
.'' Keen is also heavily critical of anonymity on the Internet, believing that it makes users behave worse, not better. He says: "The Web's cherished anonymity can be a weapon as well as a shield."
Showing that misbehavior using anonymity has been so widely adopted, new definitions such as "
trolls" and "
sock puppets" have emerged.
Criticism of social exhibitionism
In the book ''Digital Vertigo'', Keen argues that the "hypervisibility" promoted by social networks like Facebook and Twitter traps users into sacrificing vitally important parts of the human experience, like privacy and solitude. He compares the experience of participating in modern social networks with
's
Panopticon
The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be o ...
, concluding that: "The future should be anything but social."
He is not without his critics.
Tim O'Reilly
Tim O'Reilly (born 6 June 1954) is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates). He popularised the terms open source and Web 2.0.
Education and early life
Born in County Cork, Ireland, Tim O'Reilly moved to San Francisco, C ...
has said: "he was just pure and simple looking for an angle, to create some controversy to sell a book, I don't think there's any substance whatever to his rants."
Criticism of the Internet
In his book ''The Internet Is Not the Answer'', Keen presents the history of the internet and its impact on psychology, economy, and society.
He argues that the more the internet develops, the more detrimental it is to those who use it.
Keen writes: "It is more like a negative feedback loop, a digital vicious cycle in which it is us, the Web’s users, who are its victims rather than beneficiaries".
Keen goes on to argue that the internet has allowed for the emergence of "new, leviathan-like monopolists like
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
, and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
,” impeding economic competition and economic justice between the rich and poor.
Keen also argues that the internet encourages intolerance and that "rather than fostering a cultural renaissance, it has created a selfie-centered culture of voyeurism and narcissism".
On the Digital Revolution
Published in 2018 by Grove Atlantic, Keen's most recent book ''How to Fix the Future'' deals about how societies need to address the challenges caused by the
Digital Revolution as they did with its counterpart the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, which similarly disrupted human lives and various industries.
Rather than a critique on current technology, ''How to Fix the Future'' showcases what global leaders are doing to mitigate the effects of new technology on politics, culture, society, etc.
Keen argues that people must try to preserve human values in an increasingly digital world and ensure the future is something everyone can look forward to again.
According to Keen, there are five key tools to addressing the negative effects caused by the Digital Revolution, including changes in regulation, competitive innovation, social responsibility, education, and worker and consumer choice.
Published works
# ''
The Cult of the Amateur'', Crown Publishing Group, 2007,
# ''Digital Vertigo'', St. Martin's Press, 2012,
# ''The Internet Is Not The Answer'', Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015,
# ''How to Fix the Future'', Grove Atlantic, 2018,
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keen, Andrew
Alumni of the University of London
American bloggers
American male journalists
Critics of Wikipedia
English emigrants to the United States
Living people
University of California, Berkeley alumni
1960s births
Tufts University faculty
Northeastern University faculty
University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male bloggers