How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor: A Smart, Irreverent Guide to Biography, History, Journalism, Blogs, and Everything in Between

Foster shifts from discussing traditional nonfiction to the modern digital landscape, which he calls a “nightmare.” Tracing the internet’s development from Tim Berners-Lee’s creation of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, he notes how quickly it was “overrun by email spam and online pornography” (243). While the internet is useful, it also generates what Foster calls “dark information,” a term adapted from the concepts of dark matter and dark energy. The problem, he argues, is not individual fault but an “inevitable condition” of open access, resulting in an inability to trust online information.

To navigate this environment, readers must “think better” by questioning sources and also must “[a]ct like an editor,” bringing “reason and judgment to bear on texts” (248). Because much online material lacks professional oversight, Foster reminds readers that editors do more than correct grammar: They evaluate clarity, coherence, and truthfulness. He lists the many genres that exist online (reviews, lists, news, videos, blogs, social media, discussion boards, e-commerce, memes) and emphasizes that each requires the same scrutiny as printed nonfiction.

The author uses Wikipedia as a case study in how open editing can interfere with the truth. On the internet, readers often dismiss specialists as “bullies” or “elitists” while giving amateurs equal authority.