I decided that the Internet is simply a giant machine designed to give people what they want. That's what these connections do. And another way to say that is that the Internet makes human desires more easily attainable. In other words, it offers convenience. I learned that the Latin root of “convenience” actually means assembling and agreeing. Isn... See more

The internet—everything that makes it wonderful and awful—is the product of social connection and networks of humans. If it’s enraging and chaotic and delightful and impossible to summarize because it’s being created in real time by millions of people who are all trying to make money/win affection/make friends/kill time, then it’s social media. It’... See more

Rather than a tool, the Internet might best be seen as a “living system,” Smith writes. It is the fulfillment of a centuries-old human aspiration toward interconnectivity—albeit a disappointing one.