Prompt 2

The New Digital Age by Schmidt and Cohen shows how we have just started our relationship with social media and the internet, and that the digital world is just now growing to what it will be in the future. They speak of how the virtual world will allow all people with an internet connection to connect and grow together, allowing connections between people all over the world. It shows how mobile phones are growing and how most smartphones used today allow individuals to connect through the internet and make these connections in the virtual world. Lanier's views in You Are Not A Gadget are slightly different because he shows how the connections are not interpersonal, and instead are impersonal. By this he means that the anonymous things that happen on the worldwide web take away from the personal connections that could be made using the same interface. Lanier also believes the past technology is better than the new technology as the new technology has taken away our ability to connect person to person and instead allows to connect one to many or many to many. All in all, these authors' books have very different views and they have different takes on how the internet will effect our environment for years to come.