Response to the Second Half of "Information and American Democracy"

For me, the most interesting part of the second half of the book is the analysis whether the latest information revolution will affect the level of political engagement by individuals. The answer is largely no. One feature of "information abundance is the reinforcement of patterns of political engagement and disengagement at the level of political individuals. Americans in the aggregate are not growing any more engaged in their political system as a result of new technology. On the whole, those who pay the most attention to the media of previous information revolutions are also paying the most attention to new media." (p229-230)

But information revolution does change how institutions and organizations operate on the political landscape. That will cause power shift and structure change, and then may impact citizen participation.

I'm also concerned about one threat that the 4th information revolution brings to the public sphere: "fragmentation and the loss of the common." (p245) Technology can unite but also divide people. With so many things and people competing for our attention, we find it hard to give full attention and quality time to people and issues around us immediately in the real world. What can be done about it?

It reminds me of Thomas Friedman's recent column on the New York Times talking about one of his taxi ride in Paris: "The driver and I had been together for an hour, and between the two of us we had been doing six different things. He was driving, talking on his phone and watching a video. I was riding, working on my laptop and listening to my iPod. There was only one thing we never did: Talk to each other."