Rushkoff’s “Program or Be Programmed” and the Historical Evil of the Telelphone

Chapter One of Douglas Rushkoff’s very enlightening new book Program or Be Programmed — a book that everyone who texts, tweets, Skypes, updates status, IM’s, or otherwise engages in digital communication should buy or be given as a holiday gift — clarifies something that’s been bugging me for a while now. Rushkoff shows that unlike [...]

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Facebook, Locke, and Privacy

It cracks me up — though it doesn’t appear to amuse John Locke, left — that Facebook users are expressing privacy concerns. Of course every site of which you’re an active user, and to which you provide billing and credit card info, location, various statuses, and so forth, makes you vulnerable both to theft and [...]

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Writing vs. Blogging

“Remarks are not literature,” Gertrude Stein warned the young Hemingway. “Blogging is not writing,” I kept saying, a few years ago, to myself. **** When I get involved in a lot of “actual” writing projects, like now, I can’t find time to write these blog posts. But since these blog posts involve writing, and I’m [...]

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