Often, the general understanding of the Internet is that it is a collection of information that is so vast it leads to fragmentation. That is certainly what the Internet was making Laura Tokie feel like. But, in her essay “For Victoria Crawford,” after “trolling the internet at all hours of the night, grasping facts and calling them truth” there is a sudden turn toward the contemplative: “You are named, and yet unknown, and today (who knows how?), that is good enough for me.”

I don’t think I often experience those kind of transcendent, contemplative moments while idly scouring the Internet. I think I need to pay more attention to what is happening with and around information—nothing happens in a vaccuum.

Have you had a contemplative moment on the Internet? Do you see the Internet as a contemplative place?