The French writer Jean-Phillipe
De Tonnac says "the true function of
books is to safeguard the things that forgetfulness constantly
threatens to destroy." It's precisely because it is not immediate -
because it doesn't know what happened five minutes ago in Kazakhstan,
or in Charlie Sheen's apartment - that the book matters.
...We are the first generation to ever use the internet, and when I
look at how we are reacting to it, I keep thinking of the Inuit
communities I met in the Arctic, who were given alcohol and sugar for
the first time a generation ago, and guzzled them so rapidly they were
now sunk in obesity and alcoholism. Sugar, alcohol and the web are all
amazing pleasures and joys - but we need to know how to handle them
without letting them addle us.
-- Johann Hari. "How to Survive the Age of Distraction."
The Independent, June 24, 2011.