Who Can You Trust?: How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart by Rachel Botsman

Trust is essential for healthy relationships, both personal and professional. In her book Who Can You Trust? How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart, Rachel Botsman argues that technology can both create and destroy trust. Through her research, Botsman has found that relationships between people, businesses, and governments are rapidly changing due to the trust-building and trust-breaking capabilities of technology.

Botsman outlines a framework for understanding trust in the modern world. She breaks it into three categories: institutionally based, algorithmic, and distributed. Institutional trust is the kind of trust that has traditionally been built between individuals, governments, and businesses. Algorithmic trust is the trust placed in automated systems and computer algorithms, such as the algorithms used to power music recommendation services. Finally, distributed trust is the trust among complete strangers that can emerge through digital networks like Airbnb or Uber.

Botsman also discusses how trust has changed due to the increased prevalence of technology. She argues that technology has made it easier for us to trust more people and entities more quickly. She points to the transparency of online reviews and the ability for us to digitally “know” the people we are doing business with, which has revolutionized trust in our modern world.

Botsman also considers how technology can break trust. She argues that certain aspects of technology, such as algorithmic decision-making or data-driven predictions, can narrow our world view and limit our ability to make our own judgements. She also argues that technology can complicate power dynamics, particularly when it comes to companies and governments.

By drawing together research from psychology, sociology, and technology, Botsman offers readers a way of understanding trust in our modern world. She challenges her readers to ask hard questions about who to trust and why, and to think deeply about both the risks and benefits of technology. By creating a framework to understand trust in the modern world, Botsman helps her readers to make informed decisions when they are asked to trust someone or something.

Who Can You Trust? is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding trust in the technologies-driven world we live in. Botsman offers readers a way to think critically and deeply about the trust they give and receive on a daily basis and to evaluate both the risks and benefits of trusting technology. Through clear and engaging writing, Botsman helps her readers to understand the complexities of trusting modern technology as well as how it has united and divided us.