~ TQ ~ The Question

~ TI-WBPBIME-ITA-IDTGADTB-TS-TCAMOAEW-A-‘RDF’-AVTIABT ~ The Internet – We’ve Been Promised By Its Many Evangelists – Is The Answer – It Democratizes The Good And Disrupts The Bad – They Say – Thereby Creating A More Open And Egalitarian World – A – “Reality Distortion Field” – A Vision That Is Anything But Truthful

~ IOA-W-W-TI-I-IF-MAT-ANFLIWWNUAIVRTB ~ Instead Of A – Win-Win – The Internet – Is – In Fact – More Akin To – A Negative Feedback Loop In Which We Network Users Are Its Victims Rather Than Beneficiaries

~ RT-TA-TI-IA-TCQ-AOCT-FCW ~ Rather Than – The Answer – The Internet – Is Actually – The Central Question – About Our Connected Twenty-First-Century World

~ TMWUTCDN-TLEVIIBTU-RTP-EF-IIACRFTGGB-RAP-A-THOOTMC

~ The More We Use The Contemporary Digital Network – The Less Economic Value It Is Bringing To Us – Rather Than Promoting – Economic Fairness – It Is A Central Reason For The Growing Gulf Between – Rich And Poor – And – The Hollowing Out Of The Middle Class

~ TNNE-I-MMOUP-RT-GMJ-T-DD-IAPCOO-SUC-RTCMC-IHCIPNM-I-CR-AEC-APOI-GAS-RTCMD-IIE-TROTM ~ The New Networked Economy – Is – Making Most Of Us Poorer – Rather Than – Generating More Jobs – This – Digital Disruption – Is A Principal Cause Of Our – Structural Unemployment Crisis – Rather Than Creating More Competition – It Has Created Immensely Powerful New Monopolists – It’s – Cultural Ramifications – Are Equally Chilling – A Panopticon Of Information-Gathering And Surveillance – Rather Than Creating More Democracy – It Is Empowering – The Rule Of The Mob

~ OC-TI-INAB-IHDATAOGFSAFI-PITO-C-F-F-A-WC-ATW ~ Of Course – The Internet – Is Not All Bad – It Has Done A Tremendous Amount Of Good For Society And For Individuals – Particularity In Terms Of – Connecting – Families – Friends – And – Work Colleagues – Around The World

~ IC-KUPW-EMI-STB-TWKO ~ Internet Companies – Know Us Particularly Well – Even More Intimately – So They Boast – Than We Know Ourselves

~ AWASIT-BNDW-OCITSONTBTSU ~ As We All Step Into This – Brave New Digital World – Our Challenge Is To Shape Our Networking Tools Before They Shape Us

~ NS ~ Networked Society

~ ETCBCIBC-A-TAODBPOIM-B ~ Everything That Can Be Connected Is Being Connected – And – The Amount Of Data Being Produced Online Is Mind-Boggling

~ RTPMJOP-TI-IDBW-T-AC ~ Rather Than Producing More Jobs Or Prosperity – The Internet – Is Dominated By Winner-Take-All Companies

~ T-NF-IAAF-SASTATBC-I-IR-Q-S-SICBSIAS-O-E-ASW ~ The – Narrative Fallacy – Is Actually A Fallacy – Sometimes A Story That Appears To Be Complex – Is – In Reality – Quite – Simple – Sometimes It Can Be Summarized In A Sentence – Or – Even – A Single Word

~ DF ~ Data Factories

~ TCOTS ~ The Cult Of The Social

~ T-O-LOH-IT-TAAL-H-I-U-U-A-U ~ The – Only – Law Of History – Is That – There Aren’t Any Laws – History – Is – Unknowing – Unexpected – And – Unintentional

~ TI-HG-FC-F-BAFOC-T-TAE-EOP-IPA ~ The Internet – Has Gone – Full Circle – From – Banning All Forms Of Commerce – To – Transforming Absolutely Everything – Especially Our Privacy – Into Profitable Activity

~ B-TIOE-A-A-IOE-W-FBOW-BI ~ Both – The Internet Of Everything – And An – Internet Of Everyone – Will – For Better Or Worse – Become Inevitable

~ TBC ~ The Broken Center

~ RTFO-‘W’-O-NAA-IRAAI-TL-TPWWLTJ-TF ~ Rather Than Focusing On – “Winning” – Our – Networked Automation Anxiety – Is Really All About Identifying – The Losers – The People Who Will Lose Their Jobs – The Failures

~ TPATBFSBCO-TI-W-OC-BA-H-IE-ANC-TGSC-IS ~ To Pin All The Blame For Society’s Broken Center On – The Internet – Would – Of Course – Be Absurd – However – Internet Economics – Are Now Compounding – The Growing Silicon Chasm – In Society

~ NIJFL ~ Nostalgia Isn’t Just For Luddites

~ FTDUITWAC-Y-I-TI-W-T-AE-ARAMOS ~ Free Tools Delude Us Into Thinking We Are Celebrities – Yet – In – The Internet’s – Winner-Take-All Economy – Attention Remains A Monopoly Of Superstars

~ 11MF-A-FNAA ~ 11 Million Followers – And – Followed Nobody At All

~ HTIU-TPR-ICMUMPAU ~ Hello This Is Us – The Personal Revolution – Is Certainly Making Us More Parochial And Unworldly

~ S-C ~ Selfi-Centric

~ TRMIT-WACAA-TT-OC-IT-WAMJTTO-OT-S’S’N ~ The Real Myth Is That – We Are Communicating At All – The Truth – Of Course – Is That – We Are Mostly Just Talking To Ourselves – On These – Supposedly “Social” Networks

~ TMDFITDFE:’F’-IABF ~ The Most Disturbing Flaw In The Data Factory Economy: “Free” – Is Anything But Free

~ TEO-OPI-ITEO-T-‘BD’E-TKUSI-PUU-A-WOC-SUBTA ~ The Exploitation Of – Our Personal Information – Is The Engine Of – The – “Big Data” Economy – To Know Us So Intimately – Package Us Up – And – Without Our Consent – Sell Us Back To Advertisers

~ WHBTSTIBPISET ~ We Have Become The Show That Is Being Played In Somebody Else’s Theater

~ NFATWWWOATF ~ Nostalgic For A Time When We Were Optimistic About The Future

~ TCOA ~ The Catastrophe Of Abundance

~ TNS ~ The Narrow Stump

~ IWAGE-AF-A-NE ~ It Was A Gift Economy – All Gift – And – No Economics

~ TOPE ~ The One Percent Economy

~ AAOS ~ An Abundance Of Stupidity

~ LMR-THATA-TEOTP-WBTCWTPF ~ Like Most Revolutionaries – They Had Appointed Themselves As – The Emancipators Of The People – Without Bothering To Check With The People First

~ IOTQ-TI-WATA ~ Irrespective Of The Question – The Internet – Was Always The Answer

~ TOPR-IMAGEWTOPABMBATGOIMIC ~ The One Percent Rule – It’s Mostly A Gift Economy Where The Only Profits Are Being Made By A Tiny Group Of Increasingly Monopolistic Internet Companies

~ TETSQOSMI-A-W-J-CIAFDS-WAMPTSORWSTOH ~ The Emotion That Spreads Most Quickly On Social Media Is – Anger – With – Joy – Coming In A Very Distant Second – We Are More Prone To Share Our Rage With Strangers Than Our Happiness

~ HIUOTI ~ Hatred Is Ubiquitous On The Internet

~ B-IWGIAAEIOCOB ~ But – Information Without Gatekeepers Is Almost Always Either Inaccurate Or Corrupt Or Both

~ W2.0-CO-TAO-I-FI-TWOTC-HIS-OBCBAE ~ Web 2.0’s Cult Of – Transparency And Openness – Its – Faith In – The Wisdom Of The Crowd – Has Ironically Spawned – Opaque Bureaucracies Controlled By Anonymous Elites

~ F3.0-TNGD-ATEVOFLIIIP ~ Fashion 3.0 – The Next Great Disruption – All The Economic Value Of Fashion Lies In Its Intellectual Property

~ ‘S’-IAUF-T ~ “Sharing” – Is A Euphemism For – Theft

~ TINSISQTEIOTOS ~ There Is No Shame In Sometimes Questioning The Economic Impact Of Technology On Society

~ TMOS ~ The Ministry Of Surveillance

~ U-H-INAE/OQ-ITNW-WSFB-TG-A-PBD ~ Unfortunately – However – It’s Not An Either/Or Question – In Today’s Networked World – We Should Fear Both – The Government – And – Private Big Data

~ WITFOPIAIOEAE? ~ What Is The Fate Of Privacy In An Internet Of Everything And Everyone?

~ TRF-TDUI-E-F-F ~ The Real Failure – The Digital Upheaval Itself – Epic – Fucking – Fail

~ ATFOI-TI-MGOTAS-AA-U-AFTAOTL-HBTSJF-SVD ~ And This Fantasy Of Imagining – The Internet – Magically Floating Outside Time And Space – As An – Unplace – Away From The Authority Of Traditional Laws – Has Become The Standard Justification For – Silicon Valley Disruption

~ NFTF(OL)TIH-BAUDLL-FTFTIH-TTARTIRN ~ Not For The First (Or Last) Time In History – Believers Are Using Dramatic Language Like – For The First Time In History – To Tout A Revolution That Isn’t Really New

~ B-WATTMB-N-IHTTROEPOWITW ~ But – While All This Technology Might Be – Novel – It Hasn’t Transformed The Role Of Either Power Or Wealth In The World

~ B-UL-W-SO-B-CBAW-CB-A-NN-WA-NO ~ Billionaire UberLibertarians – With – Staffs Of – Black-Clad Blondes And White-Coated Butlers – A – New Nobility – Without Any – Noblesse Oblige

~ E/I/P/P/J/C-AABTB-NS ~ Employment / Identity / Privacy / Prosperity / Justice / Civility – Are All Being Transformed By – Networked Society

~ TIMN(Y)BTA-B-INR-TCQ-OTFQOTT-FC ~ The Internet – May Not (Yet) Be The Answer – But – It Nonetheless Remains – The Central Question – Of The First Quarter Of The Twenty-First Century