Iam a Luddite. I refuse to use an electric toothbrush or can opener. I threw away our plug-in teakettle. I only read actual books; I don’t listen to them on CD while I drive, and I can’t imagine scrolling through “The Portrait of a Lady.” But I am a lazy Luddite. I don’t wash my clothes on a rock; I love my TiVo; and when it comes to research, I think nothing beats the Internet.
For example: “Luddite.” As I sat in my pajamas, Google brought up 632,000 results in 0.36 of a second after my one-word request. Wikipedia, as usual, came in at No. 1. In fact, on every search engine I tried, Wikipedia came up first or second. The hierarchy is based on keywords, algorithms and number of hits to the site. Despite teachers everywhere denigrating Wikipedia, it seems to be going strong.
Opinion piece in the L.A. Times
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