Editor's Introduction: Internet

Among the scientific inventions of the late twentieth century none has had greater impact upon the daily life of human beings than the Internet. It has made knowledge - from the news of the day to the minutest details of science and humanities - available to anyone who has a moment to get in front of a luminescent screen and press a few keyboard buttons. Besides thus laying down the external world of facts and figures at our feet, the Internet has also provided the opportunity for traffic in the opposite direction. We now have the possibility of pouring out the contents of our inner worlds (e.g. thoughts, opinions, fantasies, daydreams, etc.) into the bottomless container of cyberspace. This gives us a sense of greater personal freedom. And, finally, there is e-mail. Linking businesses and individuals across cities, states, nations, and continents in a matter of seconds, this magic carpet of communication can help establish needed links and reduce loneliness, besides, of course, expediting matters of more tangible sort.

These three facets of the Internet's impact (bringing external reality closer, permitting freer expression to the internal world, and enhancing communication) have negative consequences as well. Not all that passes off as “facts” on the net is reliable. Self-revelation can become habitual and lead to fading of real relationships. And, the “merger between communication and technology” can lead to diminished empathy with the recipient of one's scribblings.

The two books reviewed in this issue of the journal tackle these very issues. Kathryn Montgomery's Generation Digital is reviewed by an upcoming communications specialist, Kavita Nayar, and Audacia Ray's Naked on the Internet (2007) by an academic psychiatrist, Solange Margery Bertoglia. These two reviewers unfold the books' contents for us to savor and then go beyond summarization. They locate the books in their psychosocial contexts, critically examine what is and is not included, raise interesting