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Balick ends the introduction to what is undoubtedly an important, timely, scholarly yet accessible and necessary contribution to the understanding of social networking from a psychoanalytic perspective with the reassurance that he does not aim “to proclaim today's technology as a great good or great evil”. In this respect, he absolutely achieves this aim. What Balick achieves can on some occasions feel “too reasonable” and “too balanced”—as if there are no opinions actually expressed. But this is not a fair criticism, what is fair to say is that Balick's contribution is extremely well argued, well researched and avoids the hyperbole and hysteria that so often plagues the discussion of this subject. Perhaps what happens when talking about social media is that the means of communication is conflated with the content of what is being communicated—evoking fear of terrorism or paedophilia, or a disdain of narcissism (for example “selfies”) or bullying (or “trolling”).
Every time the book got me thinking about a particular theme on the topic, such as the role of corporations in mediating or relationships online (such as Google and Facebook), online bullying, narcissism, and how professionals working in the health service ought to use (or refuse to use) social networking—hoping that the book would have something to say about these themes on a topic, Balick delivered and did not disappoint. A book that so often spoke about the imagined audience, was clearly written by an author who was incredibly attuned to his audience.
Balick also says that he aims to “future-proof” his book, and to a great extent, I believe that he has achieved this. Writing about technology might always be like trying to build on shifting sand, no soon as the ink on the first run from the printer dried is the work dated and prone to becoming obsolete. Those who doubt this might try to imagine writing about “Myspace”. The reason the book doesn't date is that the themes of our want for recognition, validati