Deborah Fallows in Shanghai

We're not sure why Deborah Fallows is in Shanghai, or why she is writing a week-long journal for Slate. The first entry, which came out on the 13th, is the typical breathless "wow, I'm in this crazy futuristic metropolis in China and people assail me all the time with stuff to buy." We learned of this journal from the blog of Jane Dark, who analyzes Fallows' first entry from the standpoint of Marxist critical theory, so if you might want to brush up on your Horkheimer and Adorno before attempting to read her(?) post. That said, we won't guarantee that doing so will make the experience of reading either the post or the journal entry any more interesting.

Curious as to who Deborah Fallows is, we found numerous references to a person that we will assume is the one currently residing in Shanghai.

Here are some of her insights into the internet:

"The online world is becoming a destination in and of itself -- and that has potentially big consequences for the way people spend their time.”

“If there is an overall pattern of differences here, it is that men value the Internet for the breadth of experiences it offers, and women value it for the human connections.”

“More than men, women are enthusiastic online communicators, and they use e-mail in a more robust way. Women are more likely than men to use e-mail to write to friends and family about a variety of topics: sharing news and worries, planning events, forwarding jokes and funny stories. Women are more likely to feel satisfied with the role e-mail plays in their lives, especially when it comes to nurturing their relationships. And women include a wider range of topics and activities in their personal e-mails.”

She has a point there. We guess we'll stop waiting for K-Fed to release the Britney video and stalk some long lost high school crushes instead. That's kind of an emotional connection, no?