If you are Silva Vaidhyanathan, Google has everything to do with "it." "It" being everything on the internet (rather a tall and intimidating order). Vaidyanathan's book: The Googlization of Everything, should probably be on your reading list.
I'm not sure if it's fair to review a book that I've only just started to read. However, I'm not going to rush through this one; it's different reading than the crime fiction novels I burrow into every other day and breeze through.
The fact that I'm on my second go-round, reading the introduction should tell you something!
Here are just a few phrases and sentences that have given me a lot to think about.
One way to begin is by realizing that we are not Google's customers: we are its product. (Intro, pg 3).
Googlization affects three large areas of human concern and conduct: us, the world and knowledge. (Intro, pg 2).
I left out the scarey text in that last quote, so be sure you go back and read the entire paragraph.
Vaidhyanathan's point is that we should be concerned about our own complacency in allowing Google to take over. He uses phrases like: the pursuit of global civic responsibility and the public good. He calls for a reimagination of what we might build to preserve quality of information and deliver it to everyone. (Intro, pg 4.)
I hope I've lit a fire under your butt so that you find this book and take the time to s-l-o-w-l-y read it and then pass it forward and then start a conversation about it among your friends and colleagues.
Complacency, I'm thinking, is not a good place to be.
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