Bowling Alone; Soul-Stealing

[photo by my son, age 5]

Jan 2, 2009 continued

Build a fence, meet your neighbors.

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Immediacy is human craving and tools like Twitter, Facebook, text messaging at their best can give this. But at what cost?

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Native American belief in the nineteenth century that photography steals the soul — what about the internet? Is that effect not magnified countless times?

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Brenda lent me Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam, copyright 2000. Some interesting stuff re internet, though outdated given how fast and far things have come in that realm. The book is very good, though, well-written and engaging (and LONG — 500pp).