'Is' presents an insight into everyday life in the 21st century through the compilation of Facebook status updates, highlighting the joys and pressures of today's world with its 'warts and all' collection of laugh-out-loud, witty, poignant, crude and downright rude updates.

Each individual status update listed within 'is' allows the watching world to look into the updating person's soul as they share their thoughts and feelings of the day in a manner that has never before existed, giving a glance of what the person is made of, if not the image they are attempting to portray!

Taken as a whole, this compilation helps to unmask the population of Western society who, as individuals, are becoming more willing to share their thoughts with the world.

These individuals take full advantage of the opportunity afforded to them by the fact they can hide behind their computer screens and share thoughts they probably would never dare to on a face-to-face basis!


About the author

Patrick Hamilton Walsh was employed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as a taxation consultant before he set off to fulfill his life-long dream of traversing the world.

For two-and-a-half years his travels afforded him the opportunity to experience and enjoy customs and kindness from Iran to Zimbabwe, as he set foot on every continent on earth.

It was during these travels that Patrick saw the potential growth for Facebook, and social networking in general, leading him to come up with the idea for 'is: The Phenomenon of the Facebook Status' before subsequently setting to work on the book.  
 
But how do you write a book while in such far-flung places as Indonesia? As Patrick has never owned a laptop, the majority of the book was researched and collated in the Internet cafes of the world.  

It wasn't until he arrived in Sydney that the final, magical touches were added to the book before it was sent to the publishers.  

It was when he disembarked the boat at Ushuaia, Argentina, following his courageous adventures in Antarctica, he received the news his book had been published and was now widely available to the world. Patrick however, still had to complete a trip taking in the length and breadth of Africa, before he could get his hands on the first copies. The rest, as they say, is history.