I received SO many recommendations to read Ctrl, Alt; Delete: How I Grew Up Online by Emma Gannon that I had to download it to my kindle app.
The book blurb:
Emma Gannon was born in 1989, the year the World Wide Web was conceived, so she’s literally grown up alongside the Internet. There’ve been late night chat room experiments, sexting from a Nokia and dubious webcam exchanges. And let’s not forget catfishing, MSN, digital friendships and #feminism. She was basically social networking way before it was a thing – and she’s even made a successful career from it.
Ctrl Alt Delete is Emma’s painfully funny and timely memoir, in which she aims to bring a little hope to anybody who has played out a significant part of their life online. Her confessions, revelations and honesty may even make you log off social media (at least for an hour).
I was born on the other end of the 80’s compared to Emma but everything in here really did resonate and/or bring back memories of my youth. The MSN life, you must remember it too? The self confidence issues and all those teenage and early dating issues. I found myself almost cringing remembering mine. Eeek!
I found it so easy to read and only the need to get off a train made me stop and then carry on reading as soon as I could. I loved her honesty and the way she made the stories really feel like a chat over a cup of tea with a friend.
The reason that I’ve wanted to put this review here is for three reasons; first the above, I loved it! Secondly, as she understands the blogging world she has so much insight into being a content creator. You can’t help but feel inspired by her. Thirdly, as a parent I’m constantly aware of the world my kids live in. The advancements in technology astound me and terrify me in equal measures. I know they will make mistakes and learn from them too.
I’ve also seen that Emma narrates the audio version of this book too which I’m thinking of getting. You can listen (on her podcast) and read more from her on her website http://www.emmagannon.co.uk/
Have you read it? What other books do you recommend that I add to my long list 😉
Let me know in a comment below.
