Couch Potatoes and Gin

This article by Shirky is about how our society used to and still has, loads of cognitive surplus. The argument Shirky makes throughout the article is how society has no idea how to use it. We spend it doing useless things like watching tv, rather than editing a wikipedia article online to better educate the society. However she makes a point with the ones who spend all their time watching tv, saying it's better to do something than nothing. Her definition of literacy would be determining how well people are able to manage their free time and what they do with their surplus and if they manage it efficiently or not. It's definitely doesn't relate to the previous definitions of literacy, but I think it's the most smart approach and one that I might end up using in my paper. A cognitive surplus is what humans have and use in order for them to have free time. Most of the time, it's cognitive surplus thats being wasted. This article matters because it can help open the eyes of our today lazy society, the one constantly making up excuses, being couch potatoes, procrastinating with their work, to get out there and actually do something useful and productive.
Similarities throughout this article include the words time and and surplus. Making them directly correlated because they are the main two things we waste to an extreme level every single day. It goes to waste right before our eyes and we even realize we're watching it, but we choose to continue sitting there on the couch and not do anything.