“Robert Hassan provides here an accessible and valuable review of the information society, with his own forceful argument for the role of neo-liberalism in shaping this accelerating and volatile world in which we must live.” Frank Webster, City University of London “Robert Hassan has successfully updated the stale notion of information society. From the perspective of Internet culture Hassan takes apart the self-evident information technology hype. Instead of leading us further down into cold, sociological formulas, The Information Society engages in contemporary debates around the network effect. Hassan singles out two processes: commodification and acceleration. The critical contribution centres around the speed illusion of today's network society, culminating in the often heard question: how do you deal with chronic distraction?” Geert Lovink, University of Amsterdam