The Societal Surplus That Used to Be the Time We Spent Watching TV

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Tech Observer

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New Fund, New Insights on the Skype ... Newspaper Begins Life Only Online

Apr 28 2008 12:27AM EDT

Clay Shirky's speech and essay about the cognitive surplus that used to be TV-watching time is getting a ton of attention around the Web. It strikes me as one of the most interesting ideas I've read in a while. Basically, Shirky is saying that TV has acted as kind of a time sink hole for the past four or so decades -- and now society is moving from sitting there and watching to actually DOING, whether it's writing Wikipedia entries or commenting on YouTube clips. This shift could be a huge deal, like the industrial revolution. Worth reading.

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