I use tools to build new tools

Both articles cater attention to the system-upon system phenomenon which is the internet. You can't sum it up by naming a bunch of prominent websites or trying to collect all useful applications as the 'Web 2.0 effect'. The web is a soup of digital ingredients - ranging from the revolutionarily useful to the scum of the digital pipes. On the machine level, a router doesn't distinguish between good and bad packets unless it is programmed to do so. A conflict arises within the age-old context of man vs machine, a fallacy voiced as "tools are our silent partners, helping us in our goals with no agendas of their own" (Gillespie). When trying understand the internet as a cultural study, Sterne argues that viewing it holistically, with all its interconnected systems and elements of influence, is nearly impossible considering the lack of autonomy and rapidly changing barrage of effects. Millions of books have been written detailing some piece of The Internet puzzle - how would one ever compile a complete chronicle of what the net is to its users? One of the best ways, perhaps, is to perform a case study - choosing one application and describing front- and back-end operations, every thing from the programmer(s)' influences to how the software operates (and what other technologies it relies on) to how it impacts the end-user(s) and their collective experiences.