Category: Internet
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Is it time to establish Internet user unions?
Since everybody and his grandma have gotten on the Internet in a big way in the last few years, the social influence of giant Internet companies has skyrocketed. Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Amazon, Twitter, and many more wield enormous power over us. We have given them that power. Their success is built on participation, and we…
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How not to use the Internet, part 4: how “social” is social media?
<< Part 3: How the Internet’s current design philosophy fails 4. How “social” is social media? A person who is “social,” we think, gets along with others and does not always stay at home. They mix well. This is, we hope, because they like other people, not because they’re trying to take advantage of them. They…
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How not to use the Internet, part 3: how the Internet’s current design philosophy fails
<<Part 2: The pernicious design philosophy of the Internet 3. How the Internet’s current design philosophy fails. Websites compete for the really limited commodity online, namely, attention. That much is understandable, and not likely to change. How they compete is the problem. Putting lots of menus, internal links, feeds, and self-promotional media on pages drives traffic…
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How not to use the Internet, part 2: the pernicious design philosophy of the Internet
<< Part 1: It’s a problem that the Internet distracts us 2. The pernicious design philosophy of the Internet. The way that the Internet is designed—not graphic design, but overall habits and architecture—encourages the widespread distractability that I, at least, hate. This basic notion is not my idea; I freely admit that I learned it from…
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How not to use the Internet, part 1: it’s a problem that the Internet distracts us
For almost a year, I’ve been at work on a very long essay about some problems with the Internet and social media in particular. I’ve worked on it now and then and occasionally I think I’m really going to finish it—but I never do. So, as a concession to failure, or partial failure anyway, I have…