ABSTRACT

Twenty-four-year-old Lauren Dressen knows she should be paying attention to what her law professor is saying but having wireless Internet in the classroom has made it quite difficult. Half listening to the lecture, the second-year law student taps quietly on her laptop keyboard, instant messaging multiple friends and scanning the latest headlines on the Drudge Report. She clicks on a headline link that takes her to a NYTimes.com story, another to a Washingtonpost.com article. Lauren, whose name and the names of others interviewed in this chapter have been changed for confidential purposes, likes the Drudge Report because “it’s always up on stuff” with “links to stuff that’s interesting” (L.D., personal communication, June 20, 2004).