Each year, it seems, larger and more daunting mountains of text rise from the lush lowlands of visual reproduction.

Each year, it seems, larger and more daunting mountains of text rise from the lush lowlands of visual reproduction.

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best. Life's most soothing things are sweet music and a child's goodnight.

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best. Life's most soothing things are sweet music and a child's goodnight.

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or read more

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, read more

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once.

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a read more

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back read more

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.

The cell phone has transformed public places into giant phone-a-thons in which callers exist within narcissistic cocoons of private conversations. read more

The cell phone has transformed public places into giant phone-a-thons in which callers exist within narcissistic cocoons of private conversations. Like faxes, computer modems and other modern gadgets that have clogged out lives with phony urgency, cell phones represent the 20th Century's escalation of imaginary need. We didn't need cell phones until we had them. Clearly, cell phones cause not only a breakdown of courtesy, but the atrophy of basic skills.