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Biomedicine in museums

To disconnect from the internet is the new 'distinction'

In a comment to cartoonist James Sturm’s plan to give up his net connection, Nick Carr (a.k.a. Rough Type) suggests that “disconnection from the internet is the new counterculture”. Counterculture? Give me a break! Seth Finkelstein has got it right in today’s comment to Carr’s post:

When people worked in fields, the high-status action was to have skin untouched by sun. When that changed to mostly working in buildings, the high-status action is to have a suntan.

When Internet access was a restricted part of intellectual jobs, being connected was a high-status action. As it becomes common, being disconnected shows you have the high-status

There we are! To disconnect from the net is just a new form of distinction in Bourdieu’s sense.

Thomas Söderqvist

Author Thomas Söderqvist

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