The Internet Will Save Us

"The emerging cybercommunity takes refuge in virtual reality, while real communities are transformed into an immense desert filled with people, each of whom lights a candle to his own saint, each of whom is encased in his own bubble. Forty years ago, according to polls, six out of ten North Americans trusted most people. But the trust index is down: today it's only four out of ten. This sort of progress just promotes separation. The more relations between people get demonized - they'll give you AIDS, or take away your job, or ransack your house - the more relations with machines get sacralized. The communications industry, that most dynamic sector of the world economy, sells abracadabras that open the doors to a new era in human history. But this so-well-communicated world looks too much like a kingdom of loners and the mute."

-----Eduardo Galeano, Upside Down