I’m increasingly convinced that debates about the [National Information Infrastructure] are distractions from the real problems facing the nation. What I see as the most pressing problem facing the United States is the gradual but profound disengagement of middle-class people, especially suburban whites, from the problems of the underclass, from African-American and Latino citizens, and from poor or working-class whites. I’m beginning to view the middle-class fascination with the NII—and the ubiquitous hype about the whole idea of mass media—as part of this disengagement, and therefore something to be challenged, or at least named for what it is.