This chapter is all over the place and it is hard to grasp the point Lee Siegel is trying to get across. He begins talking about Bill Gates' view of the Internet in economic terms, then goes on to discuss pornography and then about certain people's beliefs about the future of commerce. One of the main points I was able to deduce was the idea that because of the Internet, what once was personal and intimate is now public and exposed. In this day and age, there is no privacy; anything you do can end up on Facebook or YouTube for the world to see without you even knowing about it. It is a pretty scary thought. In terms of economics, the Internet has certainly changed the way people do business. It has made commerce much more convenient, accessible and wide spread. For better or worse, the Web has allowed people to create more businesses than ever before. Just about any idea can be transformed into a form of business online, whether it be a porn site, online community for swingers, or the next greatest social network.
The most interesting idea from this chapter is the one about "packaging interiority." This entails producing private thoughts and generating income through them. This is an example of how the Internet has broken the barrier between the private and public. Although the Internet has allowed this to increase exponentially, this idea of packaging interiority would still continue; an example of this would be something like phone sex operators. I don't think the Web has reshaped how people make money off their private thoughts, but it has certainly made it more accessible.
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