From the Publisher: 
A Question of Identity 
Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." 
Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. 
This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

The Internet is a critically important research site for sociologists testing theories of technology diffusion and media effects, particularly because it is a medium uniquely capable of integrating modes of communication and forms of content. Current research tends to focus on the Internet's implications in five domains: 1) inequality (the “digital divide”); 2) community and social capital; 3) political participation; 4) organizations and other economic institutions; and 5) cultural participation and cultural diversity. A recurrent theme across domains is that the Internet tends to complement rather than displace existing media and patterns of behavior. Thus in each domain, utopian claims and dystopic warnings based on extrapolations from technical possibilities have given way to more nuanced and circumscribed understandings of how Internet use adapts to existing patterns, permits certain innovations, and reinforces particular kinds of change. Moreover, in each domain the ultimate social implications of t...

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Social Implications of the Internet

Much of the existing literature on the digital divide - the differences between the "haves" and "have nots" regarding access to the Internet - limits its scope to a binary classification of technology use by only considering whether someone does or does not use the Internet. To remedy this shortcoming, in this paper I look at the differences in people's online skills. In order to measure online ability, I assigned search tasks to a random sample of Internet users from a suburban county in the United States. My findings suggest that people search for content in a myriad of ways and there is considerable difference in whether individuals are able to find various types of content on the Web and a large variance in how long it takes to complete online tasks. Age is negatively associated with one's level of Internet skill, experience with the technology is positively related to online skill, and differences in gender do little to explain the variance in the ability of different people to find content online.

Second-Level Digital Divide: Differences in People's Online Skills

This article presents a theoretical examination of the digital divide, tracing its origins in the centre–Left social inclusion policy agenda of the 1980s and 1990s to its current status of political ‘hot topic’. It then moves on to outline four conceptual limitations to conventional dichotomous notions of the digital divide and individuals’ ‘access’ to information and communications technology (ICT): what is meant by ICT; what is meant by ‘access’; the relationship between ‘access to ICT’ and ‘use of ICT’; and a lack of consideration of the consequences of engagement with ICT. The article outlines a more sophisticated, hierarchical model of the digital divide based around these conceptual ‘stages’ while recognizing the mediating role of economic, cultural and social forms of capital in shaping individuals’ engagements with ICT. It concludes by developing a set of research themes and questions for future examination of inequalities in individuals’ use of ICT.

Reconsidering Political and Popular Understandings of the Digital Divide

https://actelis.com/library/BBS_closing-bb-gap.pdf

Closing the rural broadband gap: Promoting adoption of the Internet in rural America

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED447983.pdf

Rural internet connectivity

Broadband's contribution to economic growth in rural areas

In order to better understand the association between broadband and jobs/income in non-metropolitan counties, this study conducts spatial and first-differenced regressions using recent data from the Federal Communications Commission and the National Broadband Map. The relationships between broadband adoption/availability and jobs/income in rural areas are analyzed after controlling for a host of potentially influential variables such as age, race, educational attainment, transportation infrastructure, and the presence of natural amenities. Results from spatial error models using 2011 data provide evidence that high levels of broadband adoption in non-metro counties are positively related to the number of firms and total employees in those counties. The first-differenced regressions use data from 2008 and 2011 to suggest that increases in broadband adoption levels are associated with increases in median household income and the percentage of non-farm proprietors in non-metro counties. Interestingly, simply obtaining increases in broadband availability (not adoption) over this time has no statistical impact on either jobs or income.

Does rural broadband impact jobs and income? Evidence from spatial and first-differenced regressions

Abstract Significant public investments in rural broadband internet service authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act raise new questions regarding the impacts of broadband on rural residents and communities. The results of a natural field experiment involving broadband internet projects funded by the Community Connect program of the Rural Utilities Service are reviewed here to provide a context for future evaluations of the effects of broadband infrastructure deployment and efforts to stimulate sustainable broadband use in rural areas. Based on pre–post surveys conducted in four communities in 2005 and 2008, the implementation of broadband infrastructure grants increased broadband adoption, although penetration also increased where a grant was awarded but later terminated. Public education efforts in a community participating in the ConnectKentucky initiative had an incremental effect on broadband adoption by positively affecting residents' perceptions of broadband service. Impacts on individual economic development activities and community satisfaction were not found. Implications for rural broadband initiatives and future evaluations of their effects are drawn.

Sharon Strover

Papers

Closing the rural broadband gap: Promoting adoption of the Internet in rural America

Rural internet connectivity

Broadband's contribution to economic growth in rural areas

Does rural broadband impact jobs and income? Evidence from spatial and first-differenced regressions

The Impact of Rural Broadband Development: Lessons From a Natural Field Experiment - TOP THREE PAPER