Initially when reading this article, I thought that the difference the author was trying to establish between the web and the internet was, in his own words, a "trivial distinction" - but he says it is not, and I am now inclined to agree as well.
Of course it is inevitable that capitalism will worm its way into every facet of society that is possible - that's just how the structure of our capitalist society is. In most cases people are willing to pay more for the guise of convenience. Maybe in this instance it isn't quite a guise; certain apps can certainly make life easier by way of their instant access, so one doesn't have to go searching for it; "the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen."
But at the same time, half of the fun of the internet used to be just that - the searching, the randomness, the stumbling across something via way of casting out this wide net and seeing where it took you. With an app for every function, the randomness is eliminated, and if you want to stumble across something, well there is an app for that too. (Not that I'm taking a shot at Stumble Upon; I love that particular service.)
No comments:
Post a Comment