FW: Author of Enders Game on Facebook and the Interwebs

 from my friend Sam:

How 'Friend' Became a Verb

By ORSON SCOTT CARD

When the Internet was first opened to the general public in 1992, I was unimpressed. What I saw was exactly as interesting as the brochure rack in the grocery store. Hadn't people read my sci-fi novel "Ender's Game" (1985), where a couple of anonymous kids used something like the Internet to pass for experts and influence public opinion; or "The Worthing Saga" (1978), where millions of people watched superstars play computer games?

 

Well, probably not. But I was impatient for others to catch on to how much potential there was for public networks to change politics and entertainment.
 

We got there soon enough. Amazon.com became the department store of instant gratification. MP3s became the preferred way to buy music—for a buck a tune. Bloggers did an end-run around Big Media to break the ideological stranglehold of the left. Twitter turned stalking into a cooperative art form. Facebook turned "friend" into a verb.

 

 

More at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703727804576017891806186856.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop