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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!

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To: accountclosed who wrote (36848)5/6/1999 8:19:00 AM
From: Edwarda  Read Replies (5) of 108807
 
I just read this article in The New York Times:

nytimes.com

A great deal of the commentary is facile, but I was struck by the reminders that family sitcoms had the potential for unifying people (an observation for which there is much evidence) and the note that people seem much more divided today. It suggests that serving special interests with more programming choices and with the world of choices that the Internet provides may alienate at the same time that it offers personal contacts around the world that effectively shrink time and distance. (See recent article in Time.)

We have experienced this phenomenon of shrinkage right here on this thread with nihil in Hawaii and Steven in the Philippines, beyond the jokes we have shared about coasts signing off for the evening. I have seen contributions on SI alone from all over the world.

Many people believe that this enhanced, inexpensive (for most), and often instantaneous ongoing contact and exchange will bring us all closer and engender insight and empathy. Obviously, for some of us it does. But it also offers people (such as EE and other, we hope, limit cases) a way to link with others of like mind, a way that can help to minimize day-to-day extraneous challenge. I am not simply referring to racism and bigotry; EE is merely an example with which we are all familiar. I am simply using him as an example of the potential for even greater division.

If this topic has been beaten to death on this thread, I do apologize for raising it again. I have read a great deal of this thread's history and have not seen it addressed in this way, but it may have been. Even so, there are so many new people here (I am relatively new) and the Internet has exploded even in the time since this thread was started by Christine.

I should like to know your thoughts, all of you.
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