Reading Reflection: Net Smart by Howard Rheingold

Technology isn’t inherently good, and it isn’t inherently bad — but, then again, technology isn’t exactly neutral, either. To get the most benefit out of the Web’s vast offerings, we need to more closely examine how we are spending time online.
—The Washington Post

The future of digital culture—yours, mine, and ours—depends on how well we learn to use the media that have infiltrated, amplified, distracted, enriched, and complicated our lives. Spurred by evolving technology and changing social mores, the third space and digital realm have altered how we communicate, what we communicate about, and even the nature of our interpersonal relationships. Within the past few years, there has been much commentary about the psychological and social aspects of these trends.

Howard Rheingold who is a teacher, thinker, futurist and author of Net Smart presents us with “essential survival skills” that would be helpful to us in this digital age. Moving past creating online identities and communities, Net Smart educates us on how to operate in day-to-day life and have a better understanding and make deeper use of social media.

Rheingold, who has been writing about the digital revolution for a quarter of a century, praises and critiques the tools and diversions in third space. The veteran technology commentator argues that a better understanding of how we connect our attention and intentions online can help both individuals and society at large. His aim to make readers more aware of both the benefits and the potential drawbacks of digital life.

In Net Smart, Rheingold shows us how to use social media intelligently, humanely and most importantly, mindfully. Mindful use of digital media means constantly thinking about what we are doing online; cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time. After all, the Web has transformed people into information producers, and not only mere consumers. Blogs, social media, thematic webs, forums and many other sites are allowing every single human being with an Internet connection to communicate anything to the rest of the world, making it accessible to almost 2.5 billion users.

He argues that learning to engage actively and effectively online is a matter of conscious decision, mindset and practice. If we combine our efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody. Done mindfully, digital participation helps build a more democratic and diverse culture – a participatory one.

Randall Packer had commented on my previous hyperessay on Turkle’s Alone Together:
“ I think the problem is that for the digital natives, in many ways it is becoming a replacement, and unfortunately, this generation doesn’t necessarily know how to think about this predicament. The important thing is to bring our relationship with technology into a critical space (such as what you are doing), so we can examine and expose what is beneficial and what is harmful.”

I think Randall’s comment serves as a smooth transition into Rheingold’s book.

Nagging worries about whether the latest bit of cutting-edge technology will have the unforeseen side effect of dulling our minds have been around ever since the dawn of recorded history. Long before Wikipedia or Google, Plato wrote of a king who feared that the invention of letters and reading would give its users the ability to cite facts that they had not properly earned or mastered. Such an invention will lead to forgetfulness among users, the ancient king predicted, and provide them with a false sense of wisdom.
—The Washington Post

In my opinion, whether technology helps or hurts in the thinking and development of digital natives depends on what specific technology is used and how and at what frequency it is used. However, I completely agree that students and people who have access to a huge amount of information but just can’t process, evaluate and effectively benefit from it. There is also little doubt that all of the new technologies, led by the Internet, are shaping the way we think in ways that are obvious and subtle, deliberate and unintentional, and advantageous and detrimental. Research shows that screen media improves visual-spatial capabilities, increase attentional ability, reaction times, and the capacity to identify details among the clutter.

The aforelinked research by the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in University of Rochester proves that ubiquitous use of Internet search engines is causing digital natives to become less adept at remembering things and more skilled at remembering where to find things. Also, given the ease with which information can be found these days, it only stands to reason that knowing where to look is becoming more important for us than actually knowing something. Therefore, not having to retain information in our brain may allow it to engage in more “higher-order” processing such as contemplation, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

“If like many others, you are concerned social media is making people and cultures shallow, I propose we teach more people how to swim and together explore the deeper end of the pool,” Rheingold said.

In Rheingold’s judgement, Internet surfers should learn to divide their attention optimally; so as not to get lost in the Web’s nooks and crannies. Rheingold advises readers on ways to collaborate with others online and on how to critically consume the information picked up while surfing. He also reminds the reader of the importance of breathing regularly as they dive through their e-mail inbox. Knowing how to utilise online tools without being overloaded with too much irrelevant information is the essential ingredient to personal success in the 21st century.

Net Smart makes a strong case for what Rheingold sees as a set of core skills and competencies which we all need to acquire if we are going to make effective use of the communities and resources we encounter in our everyday lives online. He certainly recognizes the risks and failures associated with the digital era, but he also refuses to let them get in the way of what he sees as the more productive and meaningful ways of engaging with digital culture.

Net Smart offers up a set of 5 literacies Rheingold sees as important: attention, participation, collaboration, “crap detection,” and network smarts. As we’ve become more sophisticated in the ways we use the web, we need to adjust how we use it, being able to tell fact from rumor and able to call on the skills and resources of a community to help answer our questions. Rheingold reminds us of the value of becoming a content curator in the age of the Web.

Curation is a form of digital participation that can refine your captured information into contextualized knowledge, enhance your reputation as well as serve the needs of others.

—Howard Rheingold

Power Law of Participation by Ross Mayfield

“Judgement, taste, depth, and breadth of knowledge can be an asset, a public good, and a commodity. People can gain attention, admiration, collaboration partners, professional reputations, and business relationships by becoming known curators.”
—Howard Rheingold

Follwing this, Rheingold has also organised the Peeragogy Project, a network of volunteers who are assembling a handbook for co-learners. Rheingold believes that the underlying methodology is enabled by the technology, but the methodology is what is important — giving students a means to continue discursive inquiry beyond the classroom, to tap into worldwide networks of knowledge and expertise, to talk among themselves instead of speaking when called upon by the professor. Making it easier for students to learn together and to take advantage of the infosphere beyond their classroom and their library is what makes for a peeragogy of co-learning. Peeragogy also comes from Rheingold (via his Social Media Classroom) and he explains it here:

When I participated in the Change: Education, Learning, and Technology MOOC, I grew even more interested in the intersection of digital media/networks with self-directed learners and collaborative learning methods. I knew that I wasn’t the first person to explore this space, and I was fortunate that Charley Danoff was in my second cohort of online co-learners. Danoff, it turned out, had written a paper on “Paragogy” with Joe Corneli. I’ve started calling it peeragogy because many people get the point as soon as I use the word.

Reading Reflection: Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

Technology is shaping our modern relationships: with others, with ourselves, with it.

Digital natives like myself utilise modern technology and incorporate it in our everyday lives more rapidly and unceremoniously. We are the lucky ones; lucky enough to be born in the era of the Internet with the ability to be connected to vast pools of information and data allowing us to navigate the world right at our fingertips.

“Technology has become like a phantom limb, it is so much a part of them. These young people are among the first to grow up with an expectation of continuous connection: always on, and always on them.” —Sherry Turkle

Our attention is continuously grabbed by an overabundance of content in our mobile devices. In today’s technology-driven world, people expect to have the means to communicate with others at any given moment. Constant communication through use of technology changes the way people think of themselves and how they communicate.

“What excited me most was the idea that we would use what we learned in the virtual world about ourselves, about our identity, to live better lives in the real world.” —Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle, a distinguished scholar in the area of how technology influences human identity to understand what happens when mind meets machine, is an Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor in the Program of Science, Technology and Society at MIT. She is also the author of the book, ‘Alone Together’ and a guest speaker at TED 2012.

In her book, Turkle suggests that just because digital natives grew up together with the Internet, we tend to see it as all grown up and fully developed, but it is not. Digital technology is still in its infancy and there is ample time for us to reshape how we build it, add to it, and use it.

Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication — and asks us to think deeply about the kinds of connection we want to have. Although I share the same sentiments as Turkle on that in her insightful book, I’d like to offer my critique on an issue that I found disconcerting.

In Chapter 2 of her book: ‘Video Games and Computer Holding Power’ she states that:
“It is an understatement to say that people are ambivalent about the growing computer presence: we like new conveniences but on the eve of a new era, we, by definition, do not know where we are. We are ill at ease even with our children, who are so much at ease with a technology that many of us approach at arm’s length. Parents want their children to have every advantage, but this new expertise estranges them.”

A PBS documentary which aired in 2010 by Digital Nation, also addresses Turkle’s same concern. The purpose of the program was “to examine the risks and possibilities, myths and realities presented by the new digital culture we all inhabit”. However, the most concerning to me is the suggestion that multi-tasking online is not to be applauded but to be concerned because of the impact on one’s social and cognitive abilities.

Research throughout the past decade has shown that technology can enhance literacy development, impact knowledge acquisition, provide greater access to information, support learning and enhance the self-esteem of students. Because technology and our online personas are so ingrained in how we do things today, I believe that it is an advantage for us to be with each other but also elsewhere — experiential learning on the Internet.

Although it is undeniable that each of us, in our everyday interactions, choose between letting technology shape us and shaping it towards human purposes, an open online learning community like Open Source Studio (OSS) isn’t a substitute for traditional learning.

Rather, OSS is a tool to enhance and improve the traditional model of learning. It is an opportunity to suss out, experiment and bring research methodologies into education. In the learning environment, technology can propel and transform academics into a more dynamic and social space where students can work through problems and make their opinions and standpoints known (like in this blog post). By reviewing content and issues that students bring up in the third space, the professor can better prepare lessons and address challenging ideas or questions surfaced through online interaction during face-to-face time in the classroom. The Internet could function as a tool that enables professors to be more in tune with their student’s individual needs and learning patterns. The draw and motivation of schools to participate in offering open online courses like OSS is to discover what aspects of teaching can be done at scale so that scarce resources and energy can be devoted to enhancing learning.

Randall Packer created OSS in 2012; an exploration of new online methodologies for teaching multimedia art. In the ‘Internet Art and Culture’ and ‘Media and Performance’ classes in NTU taught by Packer who is a Visiting Associate Professor —both of which I enrolled in and completed— we create hyperessays that take full advantage of the multimedia capabilities of WordPress: with embedded images, gifs, video, hyperlinks, sound etc. drawn from readings, discussions, previous projects and other research.

An extension of the multimedia presentation, hyperessays promote stronger memory links than text alone. The Internet provides students with access to materials like images, news articles, literature, videos etc. By utilising these resources, comprehensibility is enhanced through student control and annotations as well as hyperlinks to different media. It also grants students quick and easy access to different parts of instructional materials when a textbook is not used; allowing the students to more easily digest information in manageable bite-sized pieces.

Digital technology motivates and engages students. When students have a choice in their assignment, see the relevancy, or can self-assess with professor feedback intertwined, motivation increases. When students are given more choice in their tasks, those tasks in turn are more meaningful and increases the students’ intrinsic motivation.

While technology is indeed an escape route to awkward alone situations, it hasn’t completely destroyed how human beings communicate with each other; especially in the online learning environment. However, I do find this issue just needs to be better anticipated and redefined for the betterment of future students.

Reading Reflection: Mindsharing by Lior Zoref

While researching about the power of the Internet and how our network practices have changed our lives within the last decade, I came across an idea called ‘Mindsharing” in a book I found at the National Library. Mindsharing was the term coined by Israeli-based “crowd wisdom researcher” and public speaker, Lior Zoref. Mindsharing, he notes, comes from similar ideas as crowdsourcing.

The Art of Crowdsourcing Everything:
MINDSHARING by Lior Zoref

Crowdsourcing, a modern business term coined in 2005, is defined by Merriam-Webster as the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from a large pool of people in the online community. Crowdsourcing is distributed problem-solving. By distributing tasks to a large group of people, you are able to mine collective intelligence, assess quality and process work in parallel.

Mindsharing, on the other hand, means to utilise the power of social media and crowd wisdom to improve our work and personal lives. Former Microsoft marketing and online services guru, Zoref, takes an informative look at the way crowds can help us make better, smarter decisions. By this logic, you’ll get better results if you ask lots of people for advice, because groups can actually provide more accurate answers than experts.

With access to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, we are able to turn to mindsharing to find information about topics like relationships, finance, careers and many more. It invites people to think with us instead of for us and goes beyond our circle for advice and support.

In his 2012 Ted Talk at Long Beach Convention Centre, Zoref brought a live ox out on stage and invited the audience through crowdsourcing to guess its weight. The average of the crowd’s guesses pegged the animal at 1,792 pounds —only three pounds less than its actual weight, supporting Zoref’s idea that crowds can be smarter than individuals.

Zoref refers to studies such as Mark Granovetter’s 1973 paper on the strength of less intimate relationships, or “weak ties.” We’ve long recognized that a diverse group of acquaintances might be able to create a better solution to a problem than our more biased friends and families. However, never before have we had such ready access to a huge number of acquaintances as we do now in the era of social media and mobile connectivity.

“If we learn to rely on and trust the wisdom of the crowd, our decisions will be better, quicker, and easier. It is important to note that when we Mindshare, we aren’t asking others to think for us, but rather, to think with us. Through actively Mindsharing, you can access the global brain, which is far more powerful than any individual brain, and hack your way into a better career, stronger relationships, and the fulfillment of virtually any dream or goal you can imagine.”

—Lior Zoref

This idea of mindsharing can be brought back to the practices of OSS. We are able to hang out on the class site where our posts are being brought together and on our classmate’s personal websites to discuss their works and progress and offer our input. On the OSS platform, we can easily post an open-ended question on our research posts for our peers and even professors to respond to; just like in social media. Social media is truly an example of how learning and research has changed through collaboration, connecting and communication tools.

Great minds think alike.
Creative minds think together.

OSS is hence a very powerful and open-environment medium for professional and academic growth for digital natives; for we are presented with a much larger platform and resources to be more immersed in research. There, digital natives like us are able to apply what we have learnt navigating social media to our academic work. By leveraging technology through OSS in our academic journey, we are now able to engage in many-to-many collective form of participation, develop and engage in new modes of social interaction, social media, and mobile connectivity.

Additional sources & links:
Best Passive Income Model Podcast with Lior Zoref
7 Tips to becoming a Crowdsourcing Ace

Living on a Cloud : the Internet learning space

The Internet as a learning platform for digital natives even on social media.

Born after the 1980s and having access to networked digital technologies, “digital natives” grew up and live much of their lives online. Major aspects of their lives – social interactions and friendships – are mediated and developed through gaming and social media. They’ve never known any other way of life so much so that they do not see the Internet as a platform for academic growth and the everyday use of digital and social media could potentially help on the road to being a designer. Pinterest, for example, could be thought of as more than just mindless repining – but as an indicator of trends, popular colour palettes as well as design inspirations. Online forums, where we post questions about our life choices can be related to crowd wisdom comparable to ‘expert’ wisdom.

“Today, social networks are mostly about sharing moments. In the next decade, they’ll also help you answer questions and solve complex problems.” – Mark Zuckerberg, 2014

Digital natives are relying upon this connected digital space for virtually all of the information they need to live their lives. Research once meant a trip to a library to find a book but now, research simply means a Google Search and for most, a visit to Wikipedia. Living in the time where it is the most rapid period of technological transformation ever – at least when it comes to information – no major aspect of our modern lives are untouched by the way many of us now use the Internet.

We have a fundamental drive to be connected, to be in cooperation and to contribute to a better world but we are often separating the Internet from our ‘formal’ education. If we are interested in living with technology in the best possible way, we must recognise that what matters above all is not the individual devices and social media sites that we use, but rather what we use them for.

Bonus questions: Is the separation of the Internet from education amongst digital natives echoed no matter what culture they’re from? Are American students any different from Singaporean students? And is it symbolic of a larger problem at hand?

Project Hyperessay #3 – Swappie 2.0 Conclusion

Swappie 1.0 was about the distortion of facial image. Swappie 2.0 on the other hand, is the distortion of spoken words and sung lyrics.

A second installation of Swappie, Swappie 2.0 aims to distort, rewrite and stretch meanings and bringing it into the suspension of disbelief much like “putting words in someone else’s mouth.

I worked on the opening and closing transitions of the videos and ended up with these:

To achieve this swapped meaning, I sourced for songs that have rather ambiguous lyrics – or when the singer slurs his/her words. Then, I add text that seemingly reinforces the meaning of what you’re hearing and makes it seem more credible and believable even though that’s not what the singer is actually trying to convey.

This is the same technique used in advertisement; where the advertisers frequently apply the power of manipulation to plant an idea in someone’s mind. They hide a products perceived flaws and only focuses on its unique selling point – sometimes reinforcing the USP with words flashing quickly on the screen.

Our Average Attention Span Is Now 8 Seconds –
1 Second Less Than A Goldfish

(No) thanks to these short nano ads and current social media rends like Vine, Snapchat and Instagram, our attention spans are now shorter than that of a goldfish.

The use of really silly preset transition effects on the words is a parody of (bad) effects in the media as well as social media. This being said, in this modern day and age, anyone and everyone has access to high tech video-editing and recording tools – even people with no artistic talent are able to produce a seemingly decent piece of advertisement or media content.

Our media and popular culture play into our short attention span with the current social media trend of really short nano videos and images; Vine, Snapchat and even Instagram. Swappie 2.0 is like video art made for (but also mocking) the social media generation – a manipulation of communications forms.

Essentially, what I’m trying to do here is to mimic our current absurd media and popular culture and making it even more absur. Swappie 2.0 is like video art made for (but also mocking) the social media trends and generation by manpulating communication forms. It also plays into the suspension of disbelief – allowing us to forget our disbeliefs for that moment and be immersed into a situation that is unreal. Our minds, for the moment that we’re watching these videos above, believe that the lyrics and meanings of the songs are real for that moment in time.

In the future, I could expand this project from where it is right now to actually stripping audio from commercials and manipulating the existing soundtrack and make it undergo a vocoder processing. Doing that will allow me to make more absurd renditions of videos and input my own content to the ones that are already in existence.

Project Hyperessay #2.5: Swappie Realisation

The one video that served as inspiration and got the Swappie snowball rolling is the Iggy Azalea freestyle rap video where some flabberghasted netizens tried to add subtitles to what she the lyrics to the actual rap was. She was seemingly spouting gibberish as the audience members cheered her on. This confused me for a moment but then I realise that what made it funny was the audio, then the subtitles, followed by the visual.

In Swappie 1.0, I concentrated on the distortion of facial images.
However, in Swappie 2.0 I wanted to distort what people are saying

I started of with this Buzzfeed video of Obama advertising Obamacare. I watched it a couple of times without audio and tried to see what text I could substitute it with. Without matching audio, the subtitles were less believable 🙁 Hence, Randall suggested I added some effects or sound effects in the background. What we experimented with in class was music without any singing. I experimented further and came up with these:

The two videos above were really helping me progress into exploring my topic. Upon showing these to Randall, he said that they were missing some kind of opening and closing – like an ad would usually have.

The video above didn’t really work very well – just like the Obama video – because I was trying to suggest that Louie Louie sounds like Nutella on bread but not really HAHAHAHA.

I made some more videos and appropriated more media which I will further discuss in my Project Hyperessay #3 Post.

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Exercise #3

I’ve decided to change my location for the final performance because I realised this journey gives a nicer and more interesting perspective of ADM. I want to start right on top of the hill where the side entrance of ADM is; cause I realised everyone that visits ADM would take pictures here. I’ll start right at the top and walk slowly down the steps while focusing on the views per step. Because the ADM building is very reflective, I think its interesting if the audience could catch a glimpse of my cam through the reflective surfaces; yet not be able to see me.

Following that I’ll walk towards the sunken plaza – everything around the sunken plaza is reflective glass..

Then, I’ll cross the stone “bridge” –

Even showing my foot/feet as I cross the water.

Then I’ll continue my way towards the inside of the ADM building.

And even show some artworks along the way.

Ultimately, I will walk through these doors and walk into the ADM building.

And up the long flight of stairs – occasionally showing where I was earlier through the glass on the inside.

This is how it would look when I point my camera out the building.

And the view of the steps; occasionally my feet..

And then we arrive at the ADM lounge – some of the audience would recognise the old adm cafe/ now the new ADM lounge thats right next to the atrium space where the symposium is happening.

Showing the screens of the symposium; (probably not juan behind the scenes)

The overview of the ADM atrium…

And this door near the atrium marks the end of the journey.

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Exercise #2

For this mobile cam exercise, I will start my journey at the ADM bustop. Its significant to me because I’m one of the 300 odd students who signed a petition to have this bus top with a public bus route. (prior to this it was only purely decorative and there were no buses that would stop there)

Quite recently, this giant dandelion sculpture was built to accompany this lonely bus top and its beautiful at night cos the whole sculpture lights up (i think they are LED lights) and would look great on webcam, in my opinion.

Then I move along, the the art pastry cafe alfresco dining where some people would be dining.

Then I’ll head to the automated door to the indoor dining space (this door makes a cool automated sound)

Then I’ll show you the adm cafe counter (but it would be closed by night)

people dining at the cafe with ambient noise and talking..

Then i’ll walk the way down to the corridor leading up to the lobby. (you can hear echoes here sometimes)

Then we’ll head to the lobby where there is the Vishwaroop exhibition by one of the ADM professors which is really cool (you’ll see the whole thing in a bit)

We’ve reached the lobby! (Sound is abundant here – from the chattering of people hanging out at the arm lounge to the tings of the lift) HAHA

Here is my contribution to pirate pad:

Project Hyperessay #2: Monkey Business

For the second installment of my Project Hyperessay, I found better examples of the direction in which I’d like my final project to go. Coincidentally, both reference videos were of dogs. I referring an animal (who has no ability to communicate with us with words) and humanizing it is a topic that is engaging as well as entertaining to netizens.

In this first clip, music is added to the visual of a corgi shaking off. Due to the lyrics of the music clip, “bubble butt” it paints a different picture in your mind of a seemingly ordinary act by a dog. Some commenters have thought about the dog as “a better twerker than Miley Cyrus” due to the similarity of its actions compared to human twerking…

https://youtu.be/HB_bLryaw7w

The second video depicts a dog who was howling. The owner candidly voiced over the clip by pretending to be teasing the dog with food and that they were actually having an almost humanlike conversation with each other regarding the food. The timing of the voiceover was perfect and thus, alters our perception for a minute about a dog being able to converse. The simple act of adding a music clip has the ability to create an entirely new world, and to transform one reality into another.

This is my first humble attempt at sound manipulation with no prior experience whatsoever – I just winged it. I found this really entertaining video of a monkey doing sit ups and push ups on my facebook timeline and the song that played in my head was the Eye of the Tiger in the Rocky movie…

I felt that best way to execute this (that i’m more or less familiar with) would be to download the video and reappropriate the sound clips in iMovie that comes with my macbook.

My iMovie page in the process of sound manipulation.

I thought it would be a good idea to upload the completed video on vimeo – then I realised that as I am not holding on to an upgraded vimeo account, every video I upload would take a quarter of an hour to upload :/

Thus, I tried to upload it onto Youtube instead – which took far less time. I could then post the link to the video on my existing Swappie Facebook page.

Enjoy the Rocky Monkey 😀

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Part II

OSS Adobe Connect Mobile Cam with MJ: Part II

As mentioned, this is our second attempt using the Adobe Connect app platform on our mobile phones. We showed each other the overview of our rooms; MJ was at home and I was in my room in NTU hall.

We then showed each other what we were doing prior to being online – MJ was writing his hyperessay #2 and I was making pages for my CVE class submission.

We showed each other the artwork on our walls of our rooms…

And even our beds…

And not forgetting our snuggle buddies!

Then we both opened our closets;

And showed each other our perspectives from where we stood.

And included our hands in the presentation…

And we both went back to doing what we were doing after logging off the app 🙂

rufuzafanafa

Young, Wild, but not-so-Free.

Reading Reflection: Net Smart by Howard Rheingold

Technology isn’t inherently good, and it isn’t inherently bad — but, then again, technology isn’t exactly neutral, either. To get the most benefit out of the Web’s vast offerings, we need to more closely examine how we are spending time online.
—The Washington Post

Reading Reflection: Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

Living on a Cloud : the Internet learning space

Project Hyperessay #3 – Swappie 2.0 Conclusion

Project Hyperessay #2.5: Swappie Realisation

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Exercise #3

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Exercise #2

Project Hyperessay #2: Monkey Business

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Part II

Technology isn’t inherently good, and it isn’t inherently bad — but, then again, technology isn’t exactly neutral, either. To get the most benefit out of the Web’s vast offerings, we need to more closely examine how we are spending time online. —The Washington Post

Technology isn’t inherently good, and it isn’t inherently bad — but, then again, technology isn’t exactly neutral, either. To get the most benefit out of the Web’s vast offerings, we need to more closely examine how we are spending time online.
—The Washington Post