People are lonely. The network is seductive. But if we are always on, we may deny ourselves the rewards of solitude.

Computers are not good or bad; they are powerful.

My own study of the networked life has left me thinking about intimacy - about being with people in person, hearing their voices and seeing their faces, trying to know their hearts. And it has left me thinking about solitude - the kind that refreshes and restores. Loneliness is failed solitude.

The computer takes up where psychoanalysis left off. It takes the ideas of a decentered self and makes it more concrete by modeling mind as a multiprocessing machine.

As we distribute ourselves, we may abandon ourselves.

Technology doesn't just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what we do but who we are.

What I'm seeing is a generation that says consistently, 'I would rather text than make a telephone call.' Why? It's less risky. I can just get the information out there. I don't have to get all involved; it's more efficient. I would rather text than see somebody face to face.