By Michael Harris \u2014 Wired<\/p>\n
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Recently, my two-year-old nephew Benjamin came across a copy of Vanity Fair<\/em> abandoned on the floor. His eyes scanned the glossy cover, which shone less fiercely than the iPad he is used to but had a faint luster of its own. I watched his pudgy thumb and index finger pinch together and spread apart on Bradley Cooper\u2019s smiling mug. At last, Benjamin looked over at me, flummoxed and frustrated, as though to say, \u201cThis thing\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n Search YouTube for \u201cbaby\u201d and \u201ciPad\u201d and you\u2019ll find clips featuring one-year-olds attempting to manipulate magazine pages and television screens as though they were touch-sensitive displays. These children are one step away from assuming that such technology is a natural, spontaneous part of the material world. They\u2019ll grow up thinking about the internet with the same nonchalance that I hold toward my toaster and teakettle. I can resist all I like, but for Benjamin\u2019s generation resistance is moot. The revolution is already complete.<\/p>\n