The Death of the Cyberflâneur

NYT article “The Death of the Cyberflâneur” eloquently describes how mainstream brokers of the web and social media have impoverished the exchange of user-generated content. Mashweb to the rescue?

The article “The Death of the Cyberflâneur” appeared on the New York Times website on Feb. 4, 2012. Here are some selected quotes from it:

“It’s one thing to find an interesting article and choose to share it with friends. It’s quite another to inundate your friends with everything that passes through your browser or your app, hoping that they will pick something interesting along the way.”

[From Robert Scoble] “The new world is you just open up Facebook and everything you care about will be streaming down the screen.”

How to Be a Boulevardier

Another article, “How to be a Boulevardier”, on the topic of cyberflâneur Lawrence Levi’s website, appeared in print in the New York Times on Sept. 9, 2001. Oddly the article does not give the URL of the website, but a little googling suggests the website might be lawrenceleviphoto.com.