Quote of the Day (Lynne Truss, on Our ‘Screen-Bound Lives’ and Social Skills)

“Many aspects of our screen-bound lives are bad for our social skills simply because we get accustomed to controlling the information that comes in, managing our relationships electronically, deleting stuff that doesn't interest us. We edit the world; we select from menus; we pick and choose; our social 'group' focuses on us and disintegrates without us. This makes it rather confusing for us when we step outdoors and discover that other people's behaviour can't be deleted with a simple one-stroke command or dragged to the trash icon.” —English journalist, novelist, and radio broadcaster and dramatist Lynne Truss, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door (2005)

The image accompanying this post, of Lynne Truss at an event for Melville House Press in Brooklyn, was taken on Feb. 13, 2015, by Terry Ballard from Merrick, NY.

Quote of the Day (Damon Beres, on a New, ‘More Actively Anti-Social’ Digital Era)

“[W]hat is now unfolding...is the beginning of a new digital era, more actively anti-social than the last. Generative AI will automate a large number of jobs, removing people from the workplace. But it will almost certainly sap humanity from the social sphere as well. Over years of use—and product upgrades—many of us may simply slip into relationships with bots that we first used as helpers or entertainment, just as we were lulled into submission by algorithmic feeds and the glow of the smartphone screen. This seems likely to change our society at least as much as the social media era has.”— American tech journalist and editor Damon Beres, “Dispatches: Get a Real Friend,” The Atlantic, December 2025

Quote of the Day (Tim Wu, on Company ‘Convenience Cocoons’)

“The ideal business model for a company now is to create a space where almost everything a consumer wants is available so that person never has to leave. Amazon is perhaps the clearest example of this. Of course, it’s not impossible to leave Amazon’s cocoon and to buy things elsewhere, but the small frictions — like typing in credit-card numbers or creating new accounts — make a huge difference….[T]he careful cultivation of monopoly power tends to keep us inside the system once we’re in.”— Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu quoted by Josie Cox, “Escaping the Convenience Cocoon," Columbia Magazine, Winter 2025-26

The image accompanying this post, of Tim Wu at a 2018 “Curse of Bigness” event, was taken on Dec. 4, 2018, by New America.

Quote of the Day (Katie Martin, on Bitcoin and the ‘Tech Wreck’)

“The shock to bitcoin is brutal for those who have placed their life savings in this thing. But the warning signs were there all along, and those who bought it anyway can reasonably be expected to have done so with their eyes open. Theirs is a pool of capital that has been placed in this unproductive belief system for too long. In this more sober market environment after the ‘tech wreck,’ now is the time for that money to do something more useful in the financial system.”— Market trend columnist Katie Martin, “The Long View: Bitcoin Blues and ‘Tech Wreck’ Signal a Fundamental Reset,” The Financial Times, Feb. 7-8, 2026

The image accompanying this post, of a bitcoin logo with digital enhancements, was taken on June 2, 2025, by Dmar198.

Quote of the Day (Gillian Tett, on Quantum Computing and Looming ‘Encryptogeddon’)

“Quantum computing [the use of quantum mechanics to run multi-processing calculations] is still nascent to be sure. But one message from the WEF [World Economic Forum] discussion was crystal clear: when quantum computing takes off, it will be able to break current encryption systems. Yes, you read that right. Our bank accounts, emails and other transactions will be vulnerable to hackers. So will digital assets, such as bitcoin, since most blockchains rely on similar encryption techniques.”—British columnist and editor Gillian Tett, “Notebook: Encryptogeddon Is Coming for Us All,” The Financial Times, June 4-5, 2022

Hmmm…hacks…you mean it can get worse than it is already?

Great. Just what we need…

Quote of the Day (Jonathan Franzen, on Digital Technology as ‘Capitalism in Hyperdrive’)

“Our digital technologies aren’t politically neutral. The young person who cannot or will not be alone, converse with family, go out with friends, attend a lecture or perform a job without monitoring her smartphone is an emblem of our economy’s leechlike attachment to our very bodies. Digital technology is capitalism in hyperdrive, injecting its logic of consumption and promotion, of monetization and efficiency, into every waking minute.”—Novelist-essayist Jonathan Franzen, “Capitalism in Hyperdrive,” in The End of the End of the Earth: Essays (2018)