Everything I need I get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany

The subtitle of this book is How Fangirls Created the Internet As We Know It--reading this book made me realize that there is so much more going on with social media than either I know or that I want to know. She uses “the first internet boy band” One Direction as a foundation upon which to explore how digital hyperconnectivity can transform personal passions into complicated and communal online lifestyles, and while she would argue that there is good in this, it really kind of creeped me out. She moves from the sold-out arena shows around the world and deftly articulates the perfect storm of social media, hysteria, and mythmaking that made such a success possible. She herself is/was a superfan herself, and she invites readers into the trenches of Tumblr and Twitter to chronicle discussions with significant players in a diverse swath of fan scenes. Throughout the book, she embraces online slang, unabashedly detailing the nuances between stanning and shipping among a lexicon of new, evolving terminology. Discussing the popular trend of circulating niche, nearly incomprehensible One Direction memes. Using all of this, leaving me at least a bit dizzy in the process, she explains how their viral success was engineered by the fans themselves.