Why is everyone staring at their phones on the train? Why is the internet full of misinformation? Why are depression and anxiety amongst the most treated health conditions? Why do online videos of kittens get so many views?

Filling the Void, a new book by Marcus Gilroy-Ware, addresses these questions head-on with a series of powerful arguments about the age in which we live. As the planet gets hotter and politics gets weirder, one of the best ways to observe how strange life on Earth is becoming is by looking at social media. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have come to be an integral part of the lives of billions of people across the world. But are they simply another source of information and entertainment, or a far more ominous symptom of capitalism’s excesses?

Professor Jon Dovey of the Digital Cultures Research Centre will be talking to Marcus Gilroy-Ware about his book, and about the world of digital culture.

Tickets are FREE and are available in advance via Eventbrite.

Please Note: This event is currently SOLD OUT but you can join the waitlist via Eventbrite.If you have booked and no longer require your ticket please cancel to free up your place.

Speaker Biography:

Marcus Gilroy-Ware is a media scholar and researcher who is preoccupied with the spread of ideas over the internet. Legally trained, he has worked at the intersection of technology, politics, culture and communication for 15 years, and is now an associate lecturer at UWE Bristol. Filling the Void was conceived while Gilroy-Ware trained aspiring journalists on the flow of information across the web, and carefully studied the irrational, intensely human ways in which most people use the web.

Presented by Digital Cultures Research Centre in partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas.

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