Robert J. Samuelson:

The Internet's virtues are overstated, its vices understated. It's a mixed blessing -- and the mix may be moving against us.

Jill Lepore:

In our own time, ... the only thing more cherished than privacy is publicity. In this world, we chronicle our lives on Facebook while demanding the latest and best form of privacy protection -- ciphers of numbers and letters -- so that no one can violate the selves we have so entirely contrived to expose.

Internet users:

In addition to demanding less interactivity, Internet users requested fewer links and clickable icons connected to social media outlets through which they could email, share, tweet, pin, blog, or re-blog content. Many said that when they did come across something they found interesting or amusing, nine times out of 10 they just wanted to keep it to themselves.

Thomas Frank:

Images of computers from the Fifties and Sixties ... were instruments of cold economic calculation; the devices that would reduce citizens to numbers and workers to cogs in the organization.

Big Brother is back these days, but in the meantime, the country has invested itself so deeply in its fantasy of cyber-liberation that no outrage will be sufficient to move it.

Anyway, it's all forgotten already. We're on to a different fantasy.

Chris Mooney:

If you want someone to accept new evidence, make sure to present it to them in a context that doesn't trigger a defensive, emotional reaction.