i awaoke this morning to a vaguely hysterical voice (Black) insisting that Black people should boycott Facebook. This struck me as patently ridiculous on too many levels. Isn’t the issue that there is a digital divide that marginalizing racial minorities and economically disadvantaged communities? And no internet access on your Obama phone is not the same as having internet access on computer. Your discussion of the need to regulate the business model for these companies is well considered.

For me here’s the thing: educated consumers of internet access services. The internet access providers are clinging to the fantasy that they are the same as newspapers. They’re not. Users, on the other hand, view their devices as about communication, you know telephones with pictures. Equally wrong and worse. Once I learned that the legal system is using internet posting to discover information about people, I chose to be careful with what I post, where I post it and who has access to what I post.

We don’t let young children drive cars without some level of basic instruction. We should be just as vigilant when it comes to internet use.