Counter-Digital Media Literacy: a new book coming in 2026
Fundraising campaign launches on Kickstarter on September 16—share, support!
Writers usually show the product, not the process. But reading is fading, so I am trying to revive it by engaging readers with writing at earlier stages—and also to earn some support. On September 16, I am launching fundraising for my next book: Counter-Digital Media Literacy.
Behind the scenes
The format suggests inviting the reader to get a glimpse of what is going on behind the scenes. So here we go. Last July, I finished The Digital Reversal. Thread-Saga of Media Evolution. Written entirely in tweets (1295 of them), it became the first tweetise in history.
Next, in August, I revised and tightened up my bestselling book, Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers. The Media after Trump: Manufacturing Anger and Polarization. The book sold 2,000 copies and, for some unknown reason, has recently become popular again.
That book introduced the concept of postjournalism in 2020. Now that the concept is widely used, it has become more evident that the mutation of journalism was not a political fallout but rather an environmental symptom—a part of what I call the global Digital Reversal.
Anyway, I cut everything covered better in later books and refined the focus on the economic and cultural aspects of postjournalism. This sharpened the story, allowed a larger font, and improved readability. It’s now in better shape.
The time has come to tackle the next project I’d had in mind for years. Exactly as William Kuhns predicted in his review of The Digital Reversal, the trajectory of all my previous books, which explored global media shifts in society, has led to this—the issue of media literacy.
But it’s not a literacy that teaches how to use a new medium (writing, computer)—it’s the complete opposite. When a medium is no longer an instrument but an environment, there is no point in teaching how to use it. The environmental experience itself prompts skills and habits.
It’s “user-friendly,” designed to lure. The best minds of Silicon Valley make sure you learn on the fly. Nobody teaches anyone how to use a smartphone or TikTok—intuitive prompts (“try and see”) do the job. The ease of the click guides us through it. With AI, you just ask.
In the last chapter of The Digital Reversal, I came to this conclusion: any educational “enablement” of digital use in fact deepens digital immersion and hastens our slouching away from literacy toward orality and tribalism.
Under the conditions of the Digital Reversal, true media literacy is not about how to use but about how not to use. That’s why Counter-Digital Media Literacy. It’s a survival guide for the digital age. We all know how to use digital media; what we know far less is how not to use them.
Counter-digital media literacy is the skill of turning off, slowing down, postponing response, choosing deep reading over scrolling, resisting digital nudges, and building habits of sustained attention and critical thinking. It’s an immune system for the mind in a digital age.
What’s in the book
This is what shapes the core of the forthcoming book. After introducing the idea of counter-digital media literacy, the book offers two main sections: counter-digital media awareness and counter-digital media tips.
The media-awareness section shows how media reshape us and society through click effects, screen use, dopamine urges, status contests, and polarization. Seeing the hidden forces that drive digital experience is the first step toward regaining control over one’s digital behaviour.
The media-guidance section offers tips to handle digital urges: from seeking alternative excitements to training fake tolerance, from practicing internet hygiene to managing the levels of engagement, from fostering meaningful absence to regaining the cognitive skills of literacy.
In conclusion, I’ll discuss counter-digital media engineering. Building personal resistance is hard but doable; all it takes is strong willpower and adequate knowledge. But can it be engineered in others—in kids, in family, in society at large? I aim to provide an answer.
The book will be written in tweets (like this pitch). In The Digital Reversal, it worked well: the format disciplines writing and eases reading. I know, it’s ironic to write a book on literacy while mimicking digital orality. But irony is an effect of literacy, after all.
How Kickstarter works
Now about the unusual launch: fundraising on Kickstarter. The amount I set as a goal, CAD $6,400 (≈USD $4,800), cannot sustain months of writing, of course. Maybe in sunny Nunavut, but not in vibrant Toronto. It’s a kickstart for me to switch from planning to writing.
It’s all an experiment. Once the goal is met, it will launch my work and commitment. Ultimately, the amount raised will show the demand—the more we raise, the clearer the urgency. The book will take 8 to 10 months to write. Most ideas are already developed.
How Kickstarter works. It uses an “all-or-nothing” crowdfunding model. Backers make pledges (promises to pay if the campaign reaches the $6,400 goal). If the funding goal is reached (within 30 days), pledges are collected; if not, no funds are collected and no cards are charged.
Kickstarter provides the platform, but the burden of attracting backers lies with the author. This is what I am doing now, and it feels quite unusual—but why not? The world is changing, and writing is too. So if you like the idea, please consider supporting the project.
Pledges come in tiers with rewards—mainly copies of the book, like a presale. I also count on you not just to buy the future book but to join the cause. I assume we read the same books and know the issue, but this book is also for many others, for whom it can be eye-opening.
It’s also crucial to spread the word by reposting on Twitter, FB, Substack, and elsewhere. Please do it when you see my posts. Driving traffic signals Kickstarter to boost visibility and increases the chances of success. So, your repost or shoutout can make a huge difference.
At the moment, the pre-launch page is live. Click “Notify me on launch” (the only button now) and Kickstarter will see the interest and promote the project. I’ll launch the campaign on September 16. They say good initial traffic and early pledges help a campaign succeed.
In the process, I’ll try to drum up some buzz—apologies if it gets unusually noisy from my end. I’ll share the ideas and hypotheses from the future book. Whatever the result of this experiment, the book will happen. So, sharing ideas and getting feedback seem to be a good plan.
In The Digital Reversal, I predicted that “human replay,” enhanced by AI, will reverse into human replacement—a major concern in the review by Paul Levinson, the author of Human Replay. Maybe counter-digital media literacy can slow down or reverse at least some digital reversals.
Onward, to counter-digital media literacy!
See also books by Andrey Mir:
The Viral Inquisitor and other essays on postjournalism and media ecology (2024)
Digital Future in the Rearview Mirror: Jaspers’ Axial Age and Logan’s Alphabet Effect (2024)
