Re: The research out there on net behavior suggests the net makes people angrier.
That's an old, hackneyed slander.... In the past, researchers asserted similar misgivings about television, rock'n roll, alcohol (Prohibition era), etc. Now, if you're right and there is indeed a correlation between the internet, e-forums,... and a higher level of violence/aggressiveness --which may eventually escalates into terrorism-- then isn't it ironic that 80% of the world's internet activity is located in the US, Europe, and Israel? I know that pattern is rapidly evolving due to China, India,... but it still means that whole regions that are routinely branded as "terrorist hotbeds" --Muslim countries in the Mideast, Africa, South Asia-- are at least immune to "cyberviolence".... But then, SI itself epitomizes the "Western bias" of (ideological) cyberviolence (*): if Saudi Beduins, Afghan Pashtun, Congolese Pygmies, Amazonian Jivaros, and Saharan Tuaregs could log on to SI, they'd probably recoil in horror and ask themselves, "WHY DO THEY HATE US SO MUCH?"
Gus
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