Olivia: A recent study found that up to a third of all online reviews are completely fake. That means the next time you're agonizing over a 4.5-star toaster versus a 4.6-star one, there's a good chance you're comparing the creative writing of two different people in a content farm. Jackson: Oh, that's just great. That explains the last three hours of my life trying to buy a coffee maker. I was reading what I thought was a passionate debate about water temperature, but it was probably just two guys named Dave in different cubicles. So all that effort was for nothing? Olivia: Well, not exactly nothing. It's this exact digital chaos that Joseph M. Reagle, Jr. unpacks in his book, Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web. Jackson: "The Bottom of the Web." I like that. It sounds both ominous and accurate. Olivia: It is. And Reagle is perfectly positioned to be our guide. He's an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University, so he's spent his career studying this digital ecosystem. The book was praised by thinkers like Clay Shirky for its critical perspective on something we all do, but rarely think about. Jackson: Which is, obsessively scrolling through the opinions of strangers to validate our every decision. So if so much of it is fake, why are we so addicted to reading comments in the first place?

Olivia: That's the billion-dollar question, isn't it? Reagle argues it's because we're overwhelmed. We live in an age of what psychologists call "analysis paralysis." There are too many choices, and we're all terrified of making the wrong one. Jackson: I feel that in my soul. I've spent more time researching a $20 phone case than I did my first car. Olivia: Exactly! Reagle brings up this perfect example from comedian Louis C.K., who goes on this brilliant rant about buying a Blu-ray player. He’s on Amazon, reading these thousand-word reviews, and he just stops and says, "I don’t know which one to get! I gotta get the best one!" And then he asks, "Who are you, the King of Siam, that you should get the best one ever?" Jackson: That is painfully relatable. We've all become these "maximizers," as the book calls them, who need every single purchase to be the absolute optimal choice. And comments are our supposed shortcut to that perfection. Olivia: They are. They promise to give us the "wisdom of the crowd." The author even shares a personal story about being in a store, wanting to buy a cheap $6 camera strap, and he's so anxious about it that he uses a store laptop to check Amazon reviews right there. The sales associate comes over, and he's totally embarrassed. Jackson: Oh, I’ve done that. The modern-day showrooming, but for anxiety instead of price. You're using one company's resources to check their competitor's user reviews. It's a perfect little snapshot of the modern consumer. Olivia: It is. And that's the "liker" and "informed" side of the comment world. It can be genuinely helpful. But the book makes it clear that this same tool we use for assurance can be twisted into a weapon. Jackson: You mean the "hater" side of the equation. Olivia: Precisely. Reagle tells this harrowing story about a lifestyle blogger named Sarah. She starts a blog about sustainable living in Oregon, it gets popular, and at first, the critical comments are constructive. But soon, it spirals. Jackson: Let me guess, it gets personal. Olivia: It gets brutal. Anonymous trolls start attacking her appearance, her intelligence, her family. They spread false rumors about her on social media. It becomes this relentless, coordinated campaign of harassment. She starts having anxiety, insomnia, and she seriously considers shutting down the entire blog—this thing she built and loved. Jackson: Wow. And that all started from a comment section. It's terrifying how quickly that can escalate. What happened to her? Olivia: Thankfully, she had a strong support system. Her friends and family encouraged her to report it to the authorities. She ended up taking legal action and implementing much stricter moderation on her blog. She was able to stop the harassment and keep her blog, but the experience transformed her. She became an advocate for online safety. Jackson: That's a powerful story. It really shows the two faces of the comment section. On one hand, it's a tool for collective intelligence, helping us pick the right toaster. On the other, it's a platform for devastating, life-altering harassment. Olivia: And the data backs this up. The Pew Research Center found that over 40% of Americans have experienced online harassment, and a significant number have faced severe forms, like stalking or physical threats. So Sarah's story isn't an outlier; it's a reflection of a widespread problem. Jackson: Okay, so harassment is one thing, a very serious thing. But you mentioned at the start that a huge chunk of reviews are just... fake. How does that even work? Is there, like, a factory for fake reviews?

Olivia: You're not far off. Reagle calls it the "illicit market of makers and takers." It's a whole shadow economy built on deception. On one side, you have the "takers"—businesses or individuals who want to boost their reputation. On the other, you have the "makers"—the people who write the fake reviews for a price. Jackson: So you can literally just buy a 5-star review? Olivia: Oh, absolutely. Reagle gives the example of a website called GettingBookReviews.com. For $99, they'd post a review for your book on all the major sites. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are freelance sites where you can hire people for a few bucks to write a glowing review for your restaurant or product. Jackson: That's wild. But it gets more sinister than that, right? I've heard stories about sites like Yelp. Olivia: It does. The book dives into the allegations against Yelp, which many merchants have accused of extortion. The story goes like this: a Yelp salesperson calls a small business and tries to sell them an advertising package. If the owner says no, suddenly a bunch of their positive reviews might disappear into Yelp's "filter," and a couple of negative ones might get promoted to the top. Jackson: Whoa. So it's basically, "Nice little restaurant you've got here. Be a shame if something happened to its online rating." Olivia: That's the allegation. Yelp has won lawsuits over this, arguing they have the right to manage their reviews however they want. But as one cyberlaw scholar in the book notes, just because it's legal doesn't mean it's trustworthy. It creates this cloud of suspicion. Jackson: And it's not just big companies. You mentioned individuals get in on this too? Olivia: Yes, and this is where it gets truly bizarre. Reagle introduces the concept of "sockpuppets." That's when someone creates a fake online identity to praise themselves or attack their rivals. And he has the most incredible example: Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. Jackson: The Dilbert guy? No way. What did he do? Olivia: He made some controversial statements on his blog and got a lot of criticism. So, he went onto forums like Reddit and MetaFilter using a fake account named 'plannedchaos' to defend himself. He'd write things like, "Adams is a certified genius," and attack his critics. He was eventually exposed, and his apology was... less than apologetic. He basically said he was sorry he got caught. Jackson: That is amazing. A certified genius defending his own honor with a secret identity. It's like a supervillain origin story. So, if we know all this manipulation is happening, how can we, as regular people, actually spot a fake review? Olivia: It's tough. Researchers in the book point out some tells. Fake reviews are often more extreme—either one star or five stars. They tend to be shorter and use more emotional language. But the manipulators are getting smarter. They'll create accounts with long histories and write a mix of reviews to seem more legitimate. The arms race is constant. Jackson: So we're caught between real, vicious harassment and a massive, sophisticated network of fakes. It makes you wonder what the psychological toll of living in this environment is. It can't be good for us.

Olivia: It's not. And that's the final, and perhaps most important, part of the book. It's not just about buying a toaster or a book anymore. This constant stream of feedback is shaping who we are, especially young people. Jackson: How so? Olivia: Reagle tells this incredibly powerful and heartbreaking story about a 14-year-old boy named Jamey from Buffalo. In 2011, Jamey made a video for the "It Gets Better" project, which was started to support LGBTQ youth facing harassment. Jackson: I remember that project. It was so important. Olivia: It was. And in his video, Jamey is so brave. He talks about being bullied at school and online, especially on the Q&A site Formspring. But he also talks about the amazing support he got from his friends and from strangers online. He ends his video by saying, "It does get better." Jackson: That's beautiful. A perfect example of the good side of the web. Olivia: It is. But a few months after he made that video, Jamey took his own life. And his video is still up on YouTube, and the comment section is this gut-wrenching mix of people leaving messages of love and support, and trolls leaving the most vile, cruel things you can imagine. Jackson: That's just devastating. It shows that the "It Gets Better" message is so vital, but for someone in the thick of that pain, 'better' can feel a million miles away. And the online world is both their lifeline and their tormentor. Olivia: Exactly. It perfectly captures the paradox. And the book explores how this plays out in other ways. There's this phenomenon researchers call "digital self-harm," where some teens were found to be posting anonymous mean questions to themselves on sites like Formspring. Jackson: Wait, they were bullying themselves? Why would anyone do that? Olivia: The theory is that it was a cry for attention or a way to solicit support from their friends. It's a way of performing a public vulnerability to get a reaction. It shows how deeply our sense of self is now tied to this online performance. It's what Louis C.K. was getting at with his joke, "Aw shit, I have to update my Twitter." We feel this constant pressure to document, to perform, to be seen. Jackson: And to be rated. It's the social comparison engine. You're not just looking at your friends' vacation photos; you're looking at their curated highlight reels, and it's impossible not to compare your own messy, real life to their perfect-looking digital one. Olivia: Right. The book calls it "upward social comparison," and studies show a direct correlation between passive Facebook use and feelings of life dissatisfaction. We're constantly measuring ourselves against a yardstick that isn't even real. Jackson: So after all this—the fakes, the trolls, the psychological toll—is the book's conclusion just to follow the old advice: "don't read the comments"?

Olivia: Actually, it's the opposite. Reagle's ultimate point isn't to disengage. It's to engage with more awareness. He argues that we must read the comments, because ignoring them is like trying to understand a society by only reading its official press releases. The "bottom of the web" is where the messy, unfiltered, and deeply human stuff happens. Jackson: So it's not about avoiding the cesspool, but learning how to navigate it without getting infected? Olivia: Exactly. It's about developing a kind of digital literacy. It’s about understanding that a one-star review might be a genuine complaint, or it might be an extortion attempt. A five-star review might be from a happy customer, or it might be from the author's sockpuppet. A hateful comment might be from a lone troll, or it might be part of a coordinated harassment campaign. Jackson: It’s about seeing the matrix, basically. Recognizing the systems and motivations behind the words on the screen. Olivia: That's a perfect way to put it. The book doesn't offer easy answers, because there aren't any. Instead, it gives us a framework for thinking critically about this world we're all living in. The real takeaway is that the comment section isn't some alien planet. It's a mirror. It reflects our best instincts—to connect, to share, to help—and our worst—to manipulate, to hate, and to harm. Jackson: And what we see in that mirror is ultimately a reflection of us. That's a heavy thought to end on. Olivia: It is. It makes you think: the comments we leave are a permanent part of someone else's digital world. What are we adding to it? Jackson: A great question. We'd love to hear your thoughts. What's the most helpful, or the most absurd, comment you've ever read? Let us know on our social channels. We promise to read them... carefully. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.