Book Review: What Happens in Vegas, Stays on YouTube by Erik Qualman

     It's been awhile since I last posted (I feel as though this is how I begin every entry at this point, my apologies for that). After a busy fall semester filled with studying, late nights completing homework assignments, and a hectic class schedule, I have finally been blessed with the free time so sit down, read for leisure, and write another book review.
     This latest read, titled, What Happens in Vegas, Stays on YouTube: The NEW rules for business, personal, and family reputation, was given to me by my dad this past summer. He himself had never read it, but he thought perhaps I would be interested in it as someone having grown up in the digital age.
     While this book certainly wasn't life-altering or profoundly revelatory in any way, there were still some good messages embedded within the text. The author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur Erik Qualman, primarily addressed the importance of keeping a professional, positive, and overall respectable digital footprint, which is certainly a valuable takeaway for anyone who has an online-presence (regardless of whether or not you are actively involved on social media). In a time where living without the internet is nearly unavoidable, Qualman makes several key points that can help remind all of us to be more responsible in how we interact with technology, and the kind of personal information we choose to reveal online.
     Personally, nothing that Qualman said in the book was new information to me. As mentioned earlier, I grew up in the digital age, and these same ideas expounded by Qualman were preached to me throughout my childhood and teen years. However, while I personally already knew the importance of leaving a positive digital footprint, I can see how this book would be beneficial for someone of an older generation who is not so accustomed to the norms or standards for online behavior, or for someone a bit younger than myself who is just beginning to create their digital footprint or become involved on social media.
     Likewise, I feel as though Qualman really didn't need to make a whole book about this topic. His message easily could have been expressed in only a couple of pages. By the time I finished reading, I felt as though he had grown rather redundant, and was simply talking in circles.
     Moreover, there were points in the book when he jumped back and forth between third and first person, which stylistically made his whole argument seem less professional and unstructured. Additionally, there were several times in which Qualman strayed from the central focus of the book altogether, as he went on random tangents about a variety of topics which were seemingly unrelated to the primary theme of maintaining a commendable online reputation. There were several instances in which random quotes were simply pasted in the middle of two paragraphs which were irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
     At the end of the day, this book was well-intentioned, but overall unnecessary. The points made by Qualman were overused and dated in some instances, and his argument as a whole seemed very discombobulated and unsystematic, which weakened the few valid points that he did make. Perhaps 15 years ago this book would have been more relevant, but in today's world it is simply drowned out by the many voices proclaiming the exact same ideas.