In a new Spanish-language book, Annenberg School for Communication professor Sandra González-Bailón and a veteran El País journalist examine how platforms amplify voices, distort realities, and redefine our democracies.
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What are the effects of social media on our social, political, and personal lives? How do echo chambers deepen polarization, and how do algorithms fuel extremism?
Jordi Pérez Colomé and Sandra González-Bailón at the Madrid Book Fair.
(Image: Courtesy of Annenberg School for Communication)
In “El Vuelco: Historia personal y política de cómo las redes han cambiado el mundo para siempre,” (“The Upheaval: A Personal and Political History of How Networks Changed the World Forever”), a new Spanish-language book by Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication and Sociology Sandra González-Bailón and El País journalist Jordi Pérez Colomé address these questions through research and personal experience to challenge popular narratives about social networks and society. Their book examines how online technologies—from social media to AI—transformed political power over the last three decades.
“We challenge the idea that algorithms alone control what we see,” says González-Bailón. “Networked minorities are the real drivers of change because of their disproportionate impact on content creation and visibility.”
“We were driven by a shared frustration with how metaphors are used and misused to describe the social impact of technology, from social media to AI,” she explains. “So we decided to write a book that strips away the clichés and looks at the underlying evidence.”
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