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1. “One consistent theme in both the mass-marketing of information technology and academic
studies of digital culture suggests that the culture of the book is being „remediated‟, if not
replaced, by one of hypermedia or the multimedia image where the linear form of writing and the
act of reading are becoming increasingly graphical, temporal, and nonlinear.” (D. N. Rodowick)

2. „Tehnologia nu e o unealtă neutră – și același lucru e valabil și pentru internet. Structura sa e

rezultatul unor cadre istorice particulare. Dar, mai presus de toate, cultura în general joacă un rol-
cheie în construirea noilor medii, chiar dacă majoritatea tehnologilor neagă acest fapt.” (Geert
Lovink)

3. „A fi cyborg este condiția secolului XXI, și nu o opțiune legată de stilul de viață.” (Geert Lovink)

4. “The difference resides in the fact that the use of television in the construction identity is vertical,
from one to many and opposite, the use of Internet in this process of self formation depends of the
will of each individual. It is a horizontal use, from many to many.” (Imma Tubella)

5. “We know, from studies in different societies, that in most instances Internet users are more
social, have more friends and contacts, and are more socially and politically active than non users.
Moreover, the more they use the Internet, the more they also engage in face-to-face interaction in
all domains of their lives. Similarly, new forms of wireless communication, from mobile phone
voice communication to SMSs, WiFi and WiMax, substantially increase sociability, particularly
for the younger groups of the population. The network society is a hypersocial society, not a
society of isolation. People, by and large, do not fake their identity in the Internet, except for
some teenagers experimenting with their lives. People fold the technology into their lives, link up
virtual reality and real virtuality, they live in various technological forms of communication,
articulating them as they need it.” (Manuel Castells)

6. „The time that people devote to using the Internet might substitute for time that they had
previously spent engaged in social activities. According to this explanation, the Internet is similar
to other passive, non-social entertainment activities, such as watching TV, reading, or listening to
music. Use of the Internet, like watching TV, may represent a privatization of entertainment,
which could lead to social withdrawal and to declines in psychological well-being.” (Kraut et al.)

7. « Comme l‟analyse David Le Breton, le corps est une cible privilégiée de la « cyberculture » : «
une religiosité de la machine s‟impose sur le fond d‟un dénigrement de l‟homme et d‟un mépris
de la condition corporelle qui lui est inhérente ». Par une curieuse inversion, le contenu de la
communication devient secondaire, simple prétexte à l‟activation des formes. » (Philippe Breton)
8. The paradox we observe, then, is that the Internet is a social technology used for communication
with individuals and groups but is associated with declines in social involvement and the
psychological well-being that goes with social involvement. Perhaps, by using the Internet,
people are substituting poorer quality social relationships for better relationships, that is,
substituting weak ties for strong ones.” (Kraut et al.)

9. “Undoubtedly some strong relationships have formed through the Internet. But they are a tribute
to the human capacity to overcome the low bandwidth of computer-mediated communications.
They are not because of the Internet per se. On the whole, as Clifford Stoll worries, the bonds of
the virtual community may be more illusion than fact: "Electronic communication is an
instantaneous and illusory contact that creates a sense of intimacy without the emotional
investment that leads to close friendships".” (L. L. Dawson)

10. „Overall, Weblog readers are foremost attracted to what they view as intellectual and in-depth
news and commentary, which they then compare to traditional media accounts. Journalists have
also observed that Weblog users appreciate in-depth perspectives not readily available from the
traditional media. More than just comparing online accounts to traditional media stories, Weblogs
provide a unique forum where ordinary citizens take on big media by voicing criticism, pointing
out perceived biases, and catching mistakes. Weblogs make it easy for someone to become a self-
styled watchdog.” (Barbara K. Kaye)

11. “We are arguing that remediation can work in both directions: older media can also refashion
newer ones. Newer media do not necessarily supersede older media because the process of reform
and refashioning is mutual.” (Bolter and Grusin)

12. « La sacralisation de l'information s‟organise alors autour de toutes les pratiques qui permettent
d‟activer les formes, de mettre en mouvement l‟information, de promouvoir l‟ouverture et la
transparence, de favoriser toutes les occasions de communication. Se servir d'un ordinateur en
toutes occasions, transférer ses activités quotidiennes sur les réseaux virtuels, apprendre à ne plus
se déplacer que via internet, ces nouvelles pratiques fixent un nouvel univers de rites
quotidiens. » (Philippe Breton)

13. “As a new interface for mediating religious belief, ritual and ethical practice, and for constituting
community and selfhood, the internet not only subverts and recasts these categories, but also
others such as „world religion‟, and „minority religious group‟”. (R. Hackett)

14. “The practice of religion has been facilitated by CMC, to the point where cyberspace may even
become a significant ritual location, as well as a tool or source of inspiration for offline religious
devotions, as in the case of pagan and Wiccan communities (Berger and Ezzy, 2004). Also, for
certain (alienated) social categories, as in the case of many women and young people, cyber-
 spirituality holds more of an attraction and affords less of a stigma than attending a formal place
of worship. In fact, some surveys indicate that this is the trend of the future, especially for youth.”
(R. Hackett)

15. “Media tend to become mythic. I use this word in the sense in which it was used by the French
literary critic, Roland Barthes. He used the word “myth” to refer to a common tendency to think
of our technological creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural
order of things.” (Neil Postman)

16. „Anonymity is essential for free speech, because if you cannot remain anonymous, then you can
be punished for what you say, thus discouraging others from putting forward their opinions. For
true freedom of speech, anonymity is absolutely essential.” (Ian Clarke)

17. „Anonymity and privacy are sometimes confused; though intertwined, they denote different
concepts.” (Kevin Featherly)

18. “The states are trying to control the Internet, and because more and more of our life is online,
because more and more of our activities depend on what we do online, extraordinary mechanisms
of surveillance have been developed. This capacity for surveillance and control is occurring at the
same time as is the capacity of the Internet to build spaces of freedom for communication. The
two trends are real.” (M. Castells)

19. “Virtual communities cannot be declared inferior to real-life communities simply because they
lack face-to-face materiality. They cannot be celebrated as liberating or empowering by nature
either, as people bring to them stocks of knowledge and systems of relevance generated
throughout their unalterable personal histories and social experience. They cannot be studied and
characterized exclusively by what is produced online as the cultures enacted online have their
roots in forms of life existing in the „real‟ world.” (Maria Bakardjieva)

20. “Traditional news providers quickly recognized that in fact internet news can marry elements
from both the broadcast and print world and provide a different type of news online.” (J.
Harrison)

21. “The presence of weblogs on the internet raises interesting questions about whether they enrich
debate and provide a wider variety of news and information, or whether they are inaccurate,
peddles gossip and rumour and, in the case of warblogs, whether they clarify the facts or circulate
propaganda.” (J. Harrison)

22. “The internet is not redefining news; even as a potentially revolutionary new medium it is
difficult to see how it might effect a wholesale replacement of the core values of the news. The
news remains what it has always been, namely the pursuit of a truthful account of contemporary
events. The fact that this occurs within changing circumstances, or via a high-tech distribution
system, does not entail the character of news has altered, merely that its pursuit is more or less
difficult.” (J. Harrison)
23. “Computer games have not led to the development of a generation of isolated, antisocial,
compulsive computer users with strong propensities for aggression.” (Durkin)

24. “It seems that teenagers are incorporating new media into their peer networks, using both face-to-
face and online communication, visiting each other‟s houses to talk about and play computer
games just as they visited and swapped comics a generation before, using new media to
supplement rather than displace existing activities.” (S. Livingstone)

25. “While all this razzle-dazzle connects us electronically, it disconnects us from each other, having
us „interfacing‟ more with computers and TV screens that looking in the face of our fellow human
beings.” (Fox)

26. “Virtual communities may resemble „real life‟ communities in the sense that support is available,
often in specialized relationships. However, Net members are distinctive in providing
information, support, companionship and a sense of belonging to persons they hardly known off-
line or who are total strangers.” (Wellman & Gulia)

27. “Ubiquitous computing disturbs the sense of physical location, extending and multiplying the
body throughout the globe. Profound risks and possibilities accompany ubiquitous computing.
The dangers are already becoming apparent with permanent surveillance as its outcome. Global
positioning systems are perhaps convenient for the traveler but information machines, considered
in totality, present the possibility that any individual can be located by anyone at any time. In a
world where democracy is not at all assured or fully developed, dominant institutions may avail
themselves of such surveillance for dubious or malevolent purposes. Reliance on the familiar
distinction between the public and the private becomes no longer possible, fundamentally
upsetting the markers of freedom in each domain. Information machines fold into prevailing
systems of domination, threatening the hard-won liberties of the past few centuries.” (Mark
Poster)

28. “Being online promotes cursory reading and distracted, hurried thinking, which lead to superficial
learning. People skim Web pages and read in F-patterns (read the first two lines of text and scan
the rest of the page). Distractions are now emblematic in the workplace: on average, workers
change activities every three minutes, distracted usually by e-mail or iPhone, taking a half hour to
get back to task.” (Margaret A. Yard)

29. “What we have observed is that the Internet has been integrated into the practice of society, and
business works with the Internet. But people over the Internet still want to do all sorts of things
without paying for it – largely because the whole system was built on that basis. The viable
business model has not been found. Among other things, there was the idea that the Internet could
be based on an advertising model, like television. Television developed as an open medium, in
the sense that you typically did not pay directly for the programming; you just had to sit through
the commercials. But television is a passive instrument, while the Internet is an active instrument.
And that is a very important difference in terms of how you are going to respond to advertising
 while you are online. When you are trying to do something with the Internet, you are not going to
want to be bothered by advertising. People very quickly got in the habit of switching off the
banners immediately. So it has proved practically impossible to have an advertising business
model over the Internet.” (M. Castells)

30. “A Stanford University study (2010) found that high-rate multitaskers obsessionally cannot shut
off multitasking tendencies while offline and become anxiously preoccupied. A 2010 New York
Times/CBS News poll indicated the downside of an always-plugged-in existence: The majority
found online stressful and 30% have diminished focus ("It's distracting, you never know if
something's going to be important"; fearful of "missing vital info."). One out of seven marriages
has diminished contact with the spouse, one out of ten parents spends less time with the children.
Generic online distractions affect memory processing as well. Garr's "technology of
forgetfulness" (2010) disrupts the transfer of short-term working memory to long-term memory.”
(Margaret A. Yard)

31. “There are significant consequences of a participatory turn within media systems. In modern
societies, mass media alone have had the resources to reach out to a large audience with local,
national and global news. With the increasing use of digital personal media, individuals and
smaller groups have the potential to describe and publish their interpretations of the world. Hence
power relations are changing, and mass media institutions are no longer the only ones to produce
messages for dissemination in public domains. To a large extent, private individuals may become
important sources of information.” (M. Lȕders)

32. “For Huyssen, the museum or gallery in current technological conditions might thus be a „place
of resistance to‟ and „contemplation outside‟ the effects of „accelerating technical processes‟.
Indeed, museums and galleries traditionally deal with things, objects, whose very materiality
would seem to make them resistant to the transformations wrought on other discourses by
electronic and digital media. Visits to most galleries and museums today make art seem still very
much a matter of producing objects like paintings and sculptures.” (C. Gere)

33. “Art made by using and reflecting upon new media and new technologies helps us understand
how our lives are being transformed by these very media and technologies. The gallery has an
important role to play in making this art visible, not just now but also in the future, when such
work will be part of art history. How our culture archives our past is not a question of our
relationship just with that past, but with the future as well. What we choose to archive and thus to
preserve for future generations will help determine the future.” (C. Gere)

34. “Intellectual property rights are at the heart of the extraordinary developments going on today. A
knowledge economy in the global sense is, of course, based on the control of knowledge and the
control of money. If we find ourselves in a situation in which all this knowledge can be
distributed and cannot be controlled online, then we are experiencing a very different model of
development. So the battle over intellectual property rights, which is rooted in the culture of the
Internet, is one of the key battles in our world.” (M. Castells, 2002)
35. « Je fais l‟hypothèse que la révolution du cyberespace va restructurer la sphère publique
mondiale, ce qui aura de profondes répercussions sur la vie démocratique. » (P. Lévy)

36. „Cyberspațiul nu a devenit locul unei politici noi, care țâșnește din ecranul calculatorului și
revitalizează viața cetățenească și democrația. Dimpotrivă, politica obișnuită, în toată
complexitatea și vitalitatea sa, a invadat și acaparat cyberspațiul.” (Margolis & Resnick)

37. „What is the pleasure of using a PC? Are the techniques pleasurable (for example, the techniques
of writing or bookkeeping)? Is the pleasure tactile, aural, visual? How does the body
challenge/engage/disengage/control/master/command the PC? What is the nature of that
interaction? Does the body become superfluous?” (J. D. Slack)

38. “Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deification of
technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its
satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology.” (N. Postman)

39. „Interactivity is generally considered to be a central characteristic of new media. But it is not
enough to say that new media are interactive. It is important to understand what makes them
interactive.” (Sally J. McMillan)

40. „Interactivity is not unique to new media. But new media do facilitate interactivity in new
environments. And, it is in the context of new media that the concept of interactivity has become
a widely recognized subject of exploration.” (S. J. McMillan)

41. „I will argue that the Internet is a cultural creation. The technology to a large extent is the
material expression of culture in the sense of a set of ideas, beliefs, and values. In other words, in
order to design the Internet and to make it happen, people have had to think about it in a very
complex way.” (M. Castells)

42. “The hacker culture contributed in a decisive way to the fundamental principle of the Internet
revolution, which is open-source software. That's one thing one has to think about. The Internet
works on this kind of software. Today 63 per cent of servers on the World Wide Web are based
on Apache, which is open-source software. Basically, everything that runs the Internet is open
source. This is very important to bear in mind during the current battle to end this situation, led by
corporations like Microsoft.” (M. Castells)

43. “Will the Internet create a cybertopia or will it exacerbate class division by creating a
cyberghetto?” (B. Ebo)