A couple weeks back, I was in a bad way. I’d recently joined Twitter, was always on Facebook, and checked my email (and I don’t exaggerate) about 75 times a day. I couldn’t stand it, but I also couldn’t stop. I spent more than half my waking hours on a screen.
And then, I found this essayat The Millions about a student who had to go to a corner of the Coop in Harvard Square where the wireless didn’t work to get writing done, and, after chuckling at the irony, I decided to do what he did. I had heard about a coffeeshop called Borderlands Cafe, affiliated with Borderlands Bookstore, that had opened just a couple months ago here in San Francisco.
Not only do they not have wireless, but they don’t have music, and everything is remarkably well lit. …more
Going through the book blogs every week, I read a lot about how the Internet is ruining everything — from publishing to our attention spans to investigative journalism to our social lives. But every once in a while, I hear about an online project that’s so necessary and does so much good that I flash back to what it was like when all this technology was brand new and we thought it would turn the world into some sort of tech-happy utopia.
Happy 40th birthday to the internet. Just don’t go buying a Harley to prove you’re still vibrant.
In what may be the most counter-intuitive finding in recent years, the internet might actually make people smarter, which frightens the hell out of me, considering what you can find online.
Bad drivers may be born that way, but that still doesn’t explain why they all wind up in south Florida.
Tao Lin’s characters are constantly connected, yet physically detached. The technology they live and breathe often seems less mechanical than its users. …more
It’s summertime. BookExpo is in the past. Writers have taken a little break from accosting critics. The book blogs finally have some free time.
And like most people, they are spending that time poking around the Internet and finding lots of things that are a little bit brilliant, from a homeless book club to a web site that asks gifted authors to write on slightly ridiculous objects to something called “possibilianism.” That, plus a “failed interview with Marilyn French,” giving up on vampires, and Middlesex on TV, all below the fold. …more
That’s the claim of a BBC News article which quotes the study’s lead researcher, Bill Heil, as follows: “Twitter is a broadcast medium rather than an intimate conversation with friends,” and “it looks like a few people are creating content for a few people to read and share.” That’s no great surprise, but there are a couple interesting items in the data. For example, men are much more likely to follow other men on Twitter than on other networking sites, where they tend to follow women instead. Heil has a hypothesis about that. …more
Just in case you were looking for a compelling 5-part documentary series to watch for free over the weekend, consider The Machine that Changed the World, a history of computing jointly produced by WGBH Boston and the BBC in 1991. Last spring it was rescued from oblivion and made available online by Andy Baio, Simon Willison and Jesse Legg. The episodes are available as streaming Flash videos, but there’s also a torrent, if you’re into that.
Baio describes the series as “the longest, most comprehensive documentary about the history of computing ever produced …more
We’re distracted, our attention is shot, we are under surveillance, and we don’t care! We like being linked and friended by strangers who may or may not be who they say they are. …more
Two years before I founded The Rumpus.net I spent a month offline. I published the result in Poets and Writers but since it’s not available online we’re publishing it here as a Rumpus Reprint. …more
Jay Smooth is the founder of WBAI’s Underground Railroad, New York’s longest running hip-hop radio show. Like nearly all other bipeds, he has a blog. What differentiates Smooth from the pack is that his video posts on ill doctrine are amusing and articulate, blending intellectual commentary and blistering spoken word. Even for those completely removed from hip-hop culture, Jay Smooth is likeable and relevant, almost like an upgrade of D.L. Hughley. This ill doctrine post about Barack Obama being elected serves as an extremely well-delivered, friendly reminder that we’re all responsible for translating the pull of a lever into a lasting legacy. Play to see Smooth point out that a functioning system isn’t solely one person, but the result of ongoing actions.
