Prompt #2 The New Digital Age/You Are Not a Gadget

            The New Digital Age by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen explores all types of Internet and technological developments both in the past, and now.  The introduction and Chapter 1 of The New Digital Age gives hints and predictions of what the future may hold.  Internet is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history.  The free expression and free movement of information that the web allows definitely helps us in everyday life, but could also be a threat to our everyday life.  This is why the Internet is such a hot topic and why these matters are taken so seriously.  There are age-old obstacles being conquered and a new wave of human creativity due to technological advances in the internet.
In The New Digital Age, Schmidt and Cohen talk about this being our future, and that’s what makes the industry exciting today.  Jaron Lanier somewhat agrees with the ideas of Schmidt and Cohen, but at the current points in both stories, it seems that Schmidt and Cohen are looking more toward the positive side of the future, while Lanier seems more concerned with the threats of technology and how much we depend on it.  For example, Lanier argues that new technology pulls us into life patterns that gradually degrade the ways in which each of us exists as an individual.  He is concerned that the increasing dependency on social media and the Internet Deemphasizes personhood and intrinsic value, while Schmidt and Cohen are on the positive and developmental side.