I used to be interested in the Chinese Martian language before and when I was living there, I was highly interested in this book when it was released.

What is it about?

The subtitle announces that the book covers “how social media is transforming the future of language”. Which is already something different from the main title.

Tell me more

I can’t keep a straight face anymore: this book was a pain to read.

I spent the first chapters trying to understand from which point of view the author was writing. In no way did it match the way people I know use social media. Then, as I kept reading, I finally understood that he does not focus on the common user but on (semi-)professional content creators and their way of interacting with the platform. Yes, singular platform as the book focuses almost exclusively on TikTok, the other platforms or publication style barely worth a mention in passing.

Building on that, the book can be better understood as TikTok marketing strategy. How often you must most, the rhythm of your voice, the keywords, the (American) accent you should use, which niche you should target, how to take advantage of new fad words etc… I was not expecting a materialist analysis of the topic but at least some etymology and history, building on examples across the world but still, a marketing strategy book was not on my bingo card.

Everything older than 3 year is ancient. More than 5-year-old is a derelict archeological artefact barely worth mentioning.

All said, about 40 pages in the middle of the book and half the final chapter are on point, either in line with the book title or its subtitle.

It’s also written in a very American school composition style (idea, 3 examples, tie up and potential followup to next idea), which was both a pain to read and a boon once I understood it so I could just speed through whole pages at once and not miss any of his arguments.

Final word

Read the wikipedia page on the topic, it has been updated to include his relevant arguments and give a better, wider understanding of the subject while being much more readable and short.