To give an honest accounting of the effects of the net on media consumption, you need to add the amount of time people spend consuming web media to the amount of time they already spend consuming TV and other traditional media. Once you do that, it becomes clear that the net has not reduced the time devoted to imbibing media but increased it, a lot. The web, in other words, marks a continuation of a long-term cultural trend, not a reversal of it. The difference is, you no longer need a couch to be a couch potato. With smartphone in hand, you can be a spud wherever you go.
- From "Charlie Bit My Cognitive Surplus" (August 3, 2010) in Utopia Is Creepy and Other Provocations by Nicholas Carr
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