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Pathological — or “normal”?
In my study of growing up in a networked culture, I meet many children and teenagers who feel cast off. Some have parents with good intentions who simply work several jobs and have…
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Back up and running (sort of)
A week ago, I mentioned that I was changing web hosts and strange things might happen to the appearance of this blog. Today marks my safe arrival back after making the transfer. When…
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The Church of Facebook
Ever thought about how quickly and pervasively social networks have infiltrated our lives — whether we ourselves are online or not? The Church of Facebook: How the Hyperconnected Are Redefining Community supplies an…
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The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
If you’ve ever gotten up from the computer and wondered where the last two hours went – Or if you’ve ever felt the uncomfortable awareness that you’re checking your email more than necessary…
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Boundaries with technology
Last week, I found myself in a discussion about facebook at a family gathering. I got these typical responses: facebook is changing modern discourse. It’s a little easier for our generation to abstain,…
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Amusing Ourselves to Death
In the eighties, a movie came out called The Gods Must Be Crazy. A pilot flying over the Kalahari desert in South Africa tosses his empty Coke bottle out the window, and it…
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Technopoly
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology has been on my shelf for 12 years. At the Asbury College faculty retreat in the fall of 1997, the Provost gave us all a copy…
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Audiobooks reconsidered
Antiques, huh? This is actually the record player that replaced the one I listened to as a child — the one my little sister used. In this picture, it’s playing The Three Little…
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The Gutenberg Elegies
How shall we characterize [reading]? What is it that separate reading acts share that lies beyond the local construction of setting, characters, and narrative circumstances? Is there a fundamental and identifiably constant condition…
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Getting to Wonderland
Independent childhood reading seems to continue and elaborate upon the process of imaginative projection initiated through listening. It is, beautifully and openly, a voluntary participation in an ulterior scheme of reality. We might…