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One word: distraction.
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The internet was supposed to be revolutionary: the internet was supposed to deliver (among many other benefits):
Economic growth - a massive boost to economic efficiency.
Reduced travelling - as information was exchanged online - so massive reduction in road, rail and air usage, home working replacing offices and factories etc.
A better informed population, less subject to propaganda and manipulation by the mass media; free self-education replacing physical attendance at schools and colleges, a quantum leap in science and scholarship.
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All these and more the internet has failed to deliver. It hasn't even delivered a plateau.
IF there were any such effects, they have been swallowed-up by much larger trends in the opposite direction.
Okay, there are lots of conveniences - but it really is stunning how anything so big, so pervasive, so time-consuming could yield up so very, very little.
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The internet: all means, no end - all process, no product.
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So the net effect of the internet, overall and on-average, has been:
More of the same stuff.
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