One of my favorite observations by David Foster Wallace is about television, which he describes as essentially “watching furniture.” As a recovered-TV-junkie (20+ years clean), I have long appreciated the sentiment; however, by contrast, the detachment involved in old-school TV viewing may be healthier for some than the two-way mirrors we use in our wired lives. Our screens of many ...
When the 1991 Gulf War put CNN on the map, that was the beginning of the end. Ted Turner’s experiment in 24 hour news had found a spectacle — a popular and relatively safe war — that defined the model for how a network can fill a round-the-clock broadcast, even without news to report, and certainly without depth or context. ...
One thesis I have continually proposed since the death of SOPA is that thinking citizens are going to have to stop giving Internet companies a blank check on policy positions, or we’re going to regret it. So far, it looks a lot like there isn’t a piece of legislation, a trade agreement, a civil action, or any other policy initiative ...
