Cole Stryker

Writer, Editor, and Consultant in Los Angeles, California

Cole Stryker

Writer, Editor, and Consultant in Los Angeles, California

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I write, mostly about the Web.

In 2011 I wrote two books. The first is about the hacktivist group Anonymous and the memetic culture from which it spawned. It attempts to explain how the viral web works, why certain memes reach cultural ubiquity, and why this new form of participatory culture represents an important new strain of creative expression.

The second presents a broader history of anonymity as a social construct. It discusses how identity brokers like Facebook and Google control and monetize your identity, and explains how recent manifestations of anonymous activism and free speech are raging against these systems of control.

My writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Nation, Salon, Vice, Boing Boing, The NY Observer, The Huffington Post, Nerve, Popmatters and elsewhere.