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"...as more and more elements of everyday life move online, the lack of Web access also puts certain populations - the poor, rural residents, those with less education - at risk of being marginalized and left without an important tool for connecting to education and health and social services, advocates say."

A good newspaper account of the "digital divide" problem.

Manhattan is the capital of people living by themselves. But are New Yorkers lonelier? Far from it, say a new breed of loneliness researchers, who argue that urban alienation is largely a myth.

"Understanding the ways the social graph changes and influences decision making is something marketers and scientists are frantically trying to figure out. According to a new study out of MIT, people are more likely to start new behaviors when they're recommended by small clusters of people they know well. This may not sound intensely groundbreaking, but it runs counter to the decades-long assumptions social scientists have been making."