There is quite a bit of room for interesting middle ground, I think. A lot of the public debate currently is framed more or less between the "very optimistic" and "very pessimistic" poles represented, respectively, by Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, and Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. They make for a nice pair of dueling books, but I'd rather read something with a bit more detailed analysis about the good and bad parts of a networked age, and in particular what meaningful choices we can make that are more fine-grained than "embrace technology" or "reject technology".
Agreed. The middle ground is where we have to deal with real data instead of justifying our preconceived notions. I think that is what the OP is trying to do with his post - a call for existing studies and data.
