Tag: moderation

Moderation is a novel blending tech commentary and romance, as a content moderator gets a new job in VR. Girlie works as a content moderator for a social media company, and she’s good at it, allowing her to fund her large Filipino family’s life in Las Vegas. When the company buys out another and starts a new venture in virtual reality theme parks, she’s offered a new job, with better money, and a new boss, William. William’s best friend founded the VR company and Girlie is fascinated by him, even though their interactions are mostly in the VR world.

As someone interested in big tech, I’m always interested in literary fiction engaging with and critiquing it, so Moderation sounded fascinated. It turned out to not really be the book I was expecting, as despite the title and premise, it is only really half about the content moderation and VR side of things, and half about Girlie as a character and in particular builds towards her attraction to William, her new boss. The content moderation side is very prevalent at the start, with the novel slowing building up a picture of what it is like for Girlie and her colleagues alongside Girlie’s carefully constructed life. As the book goes on, the focus changes, and though the company itself stays relevant throughout, the content moderation doesn’t, and the tech side of things moves more towards big companies and the clash between different potential usages of virtual reality.

The first half of the novel feels entirely like setup, with not much happening, and then there’s a few major events in the second half, but actually the slow pace continues throughout, so it definitely isn’t a book for people who want fast-paced action. Instead, the book takes a more unexpected route, focusing on Girlie and William’s slow burn romance that is enjoyable to read, if not what I thought the book would be about. The ending is not where I thought the book would go, but actually I was invested in it and I liked the return to a human focus rather than the tech world. The novel has its ups and downs, not quite resolving any of the technological side, but overall I found it an enjoyable story about people, wrapped up in a story about tech.