ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the idea and ideal of the information society and other modern myths, such as that of the digital revolution, have impacted digital practices around the world and how this sheer diversity will feed back into one of the main narratives of our time. R. Hassan recounts how the ideal of an informational society that is cheap, efficient and clean ignores the hidden costs elsewhere. Today, a majority of people worldwide, with most users situated in the poor South, access the Internet and other electronic information not through a personal computer but through their cell phones. Indonesia has seen a considerable growth in its wealthy middle class and—contra many secularization theorists—this middle class increasingly prefers a modern, but otherwise very orthodox, lifestyle.
