快猫短视频

Access Denied in the Information Age edited by Stephen Lax, Palgrave/St
Martins, $65, ISBN 0333920198

WHAT are the effects of the 鈥渃ommunications revolution鈥濃�攏ot just the
notorious Internet, but pagers and mobiles and wiredness in all its forms? And
how would we cope without wiredness?

Imagine the global mobile phone network crashes. Would you rejoice at losing
an 鈥渆lectronic leash鈥�? You might think so since the official purpose of
cellphones is to tether people to bosses. But think of teenagers, re-tethered to
the family home. Cellphone technology gives girls a freedom of movement probably
unparalleled in history鈥攂ecause they abuse it to give protective parents
the illusion of constant contact.

The pager network in the US did fail in May 1998, and the best chapter in
Access Denied challenges the predictable responses. But this patchy
collection barely touches on the much more interesting abuses of technology. At
27 cents a page, it鈥檚 probably aimed at buyers for university libraries.

Also valuable is Frank Webster on the postmodern university鈥攖he point
being no one knows what one is. Michael Palmer interestingly describes the inner
workings of Reuters鈥� online news during the Kosovo crisis. Skip the bizarre
chapter proposing belief in the paranormal as a measure of the Internet鈥檚
reactionariness.

Constructing a new definition of 鈥渦niversal service鈥� is left as an exercise
for the reader.