Review: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Sarah Wynn-Williams was a young diplomat from New Zealand when she applied for what she believed to be her dream job at Facebook, then a new up and coming social media company that was changing the way that people communicated and kept in touch. She saw enormous potential in Facebook, in particular how it could be a huge political force and could have the power to change the world. As the title, a clever reference to the famous line in The Great Gatsby suggests that power to change the world did not always necessarily change it for the better. In her darkly comic memoir Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts her personal experiences of working for Facebook and her take of the inner workings of the company, much of which does not paint it favourably.

This book was certainly an eye opener, though I have to be upfront about one thing: I did not like it. Was it interesting discovering how the company changed over the years that Sarah Wynn-Williams worked there? Absolutely. Do I find many of the incidents depicted in there shocking? Of course. Do I think that the things in the book, particularly that pertaining to global politics need to be discussed? Yes. However, I found it a constant source of irritation that the author seemed to so steadfastly work hard to be employed by, and then work so hard at, often at the detriment of her health, a company that she seemed entirely ill suited to right from the beginning. She also seems not to understand her own complicity in certain shocking things. 

Overall, this was an eye opener into the inner workings of Facebook/Meta and social media, one that has created a significant amount of talk for good reason. That said, this probably wasn't the best starting point for the conversations that needs to be had for me personally.