Robin Mansell (LSE): Power, Hierarchy and the Internet: Why the Internet Empowers and Disempowers. Does the Internet cost us more than it’s worth? Adam Clark Estes on how to build a better Internet. Hua Hsu on how the metaphor of “the cloud” changed our attitude toward the Internet. The web is a severe distraction to the contemplative act of writing: Michelle Dean reviews Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age by Sven Birkerts. The new mind control: The Internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do. As we download ever more of our lives on to electronic devices, are we destroying our own internal memory? Gillian Tett on the grand illusion of empowerment: “The internet gives people the impression that they have a voice but in most countries power remains firmly in the hands of the elite”. Jill Lepore reviews The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data by Michael P. Lynch.
