In Sociable by Rebecca Harrington, Elinor Tomlinson has graduated from college a few years ago with a degree in journalism. So far, her degree is pretty useless. Instead of writing, she’s a nanny for a couple of spoiled bratty kids. She’s also living with her boyfriend, Mike, who also studied journalism. Their apartment is a total dump. They sleep on a foam pad instead of a regular bed, and their shower spits out water all over the place.
Mike wants to write long, involved “think pieces” that have some depth. He abhors listicles and click bait articles that are so prevalent in the age of digital media. It isn’t long before Mike gets a job with Memo Points Daily, which he believes will give him the chance to write the substantial articles he desires.
Elinor, on the other hand, gets a job at the newly launched journalism.ly, a Buzzfeed-type digital media site. And this is when Mike decides to dump Elinor, and her life goes a bit into a tailspin.
When Elinor starts her job at Journalism.ly, she isn’t given an guidance or pertinent training. There appears to be no editorial guidelines or an editorial calendar. Apparently, Elinor and her co-workers are supposed to write pieces that go “viral.”
Journalism.ly publishes really puerile eye-rollers about things only coffee drinkers know, and other such dreck. We’re not exactly dealing with The Atlantic here. But hey, if these articles go viral, then the powers that be at Journalism.ly are happy. Journalism integrity? What’s that?
Inspired by her break up with Mike, Elinor decides to write about the end of their relationship. Despite coming across like a snotty teenager, and lack of a punchy writing style, Elinor’s article gains traction, and you guessed it, it goes viral. It goes viral, and Elinor even gets invited to a local news show to talk about her article. My sympathies to the people who interviewed this charmless no-talent hack.
And then? Well, nothing much happens in Sociable. Elinor shows no growth and for the most part remains the vapid, entitled twit. In fact, most of those in her circle are completely without dimension and show no maturity. And to me, Elinor is one of the least “writerly” writer I’ve come across. She shows no curiosity beyond her own little world and doesn’t seem to have much use for reading anything other than her social media feeds. Everyone speaks in “uptalk” and uses the word “like” far too often. And when Elinor calls herself an influencer after her article goes viral, I wanted to chuck this book across the room. I’ve been working on this blog for nearly a decade, and I don’t call myself an influencer.
While reading Sociable, I kept wondering if it was a parody. The book kept portraying Millennials as tired tropes, self-absorbed, entitled, and obsessed with social media. If I was a Millennial, I’d be insulted. Sociable is not not written well-enough to be considered parody.
Plus, though Sociable is written mostly from Elinor’s point of view in third person, there are times when its written from other characters’ points of view, and there are times when it addressing the ready. The flow of this book is so disjointed.
And though Harrington may want Elinor to be a character to root for, we can’t. Elinor is too much a ditz and a downer. She’s shallow, judgmental, and refuses to grow up. No lesson is learned. No development is gained.
This book is called Sociable. Well, call me Anti-Sociable.
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