Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet
Taylor Lorenz
Oct 2023 · Sold by Simon and Schuster
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5 reviews
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384
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About this ebook
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Acclaimed reporter Taylor Lorenz, founder of User Magazine and host of the Power User podcast, presents an “enlightening history” (Associated Press) of the internet—revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off.
For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism.
By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. Lorenz documents how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetize their personal brands online, how bored teens who began posting selfie videos reinvented fame as we know it, and how young creators on TikTok are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline. It’s the real social history of the internet.
Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations have resulted in a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century.
Extremely Online is the “terrific” (The New York Times Book Review) inside, untold story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us.
Acclaimed reporter Taylor Lorenz, founder of User Magazine and host of the Power User podcast, presents an “enlightening history” (Associated Press) of the internet—revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off.
For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism.
By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. Lorenz documents how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetize their personal brands online, how bored teens who began posting selfie videos reinvented fame as we know it, and how young creators on TikTok are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline. It’s the real social history of the internet.
Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations have resulted in a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century.
Extremely Online is the “terrific” (The New York Times Book Review) inside, untold story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us.
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Acclaimed reporter Taylor Lorenz, founder of User Magazine and host of the Power User podcast, presents an “enlightening history” (Associated Press) of the internet—revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off.
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Ratings and reviews
5 reviews
Kim Crawley
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November 16, 2023
Taylor lacks credibility when it comes to social media. She will blatantly lie about stuff in a single thread and contradict herself. For example, saying she never takes unmasked public photos right next to her public unmasked photos at her "Extremely Online" book promo event. She isn't internet PR savvy, and thus lacks the honesty that's required to take her book seriously. Don't waste your money on this book.
Jesse Wilburn
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May 11, 2026
Excellent book, very informative. Highly recommend to anyone who uses the modern internet. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of why the Internet is the way it is. Taylor Lorenz has done great work in this field and is an expert on this subject. 5/5 stars
Joshua Salles (omghax)
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December 6, 2025
I've been wanting to read Taylor's book for awhile now but I mainly keep up with their YouTube channel and they're absolutely a treasure trove of internet culture đź’ś
About the author
Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. She is the founder of User Magazine, an independent media company covering tech and online culture and host of Power User podcast on Vox Media. Her writing has appeared in New York magazine, Rolling Stone, Outside magazine, and others. She frequently appears on the BBC, NBC, CNN, CBS, and more. She was a 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Fortune named her “40 Under 40” in 2020, and Town & Country called her “The Bob Woodward of the TikTok generation” in its “New Creative Vanguard” list.
Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. She is the founder of User Magazine, an independent media company covering tech and online culture and host of Power User podcast on Vox Media. Her writing has appeared in...
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