E, I have to get out of here for an appointment, but I should like to share a few preliminary thoughts with you.
1) The commentary is indeed facile -- indeed, so facile, IMO, that its conclusions do not bear examination. Sitcoms! I personally have always detested them, whether of the "family" variety or of the "Seinfeld" variety. (I except "The Simpsons", although I am no particular fan of that show, either. BTW, it is a "family sitcom", whatever Matt Groening -- sp? -- may say.) Hence, I take umbrage at the suggestion that "we" are in any way defined by the sitcoms "we" watch. Who is this "we"? And should pop culture ever be used as a measure of "our" attitudes? I like very few "popular" things, and I know I am not alone!
2) There was a time when I, too, thought that "the ongoing contact and exchange" afforded by the internet might "bring us all closer and
engender insight and empathy". That was the reason I began participating in the Clinton forums here. I had been buried for years in the politics of another country, and I thought I should begin informing myself about the politics of my own.
At first, I was delighted to find that people of all political persuasions were participating. They were, in fact, meeting (in cyberspace) with people they would probably never think of talking to elsewhere, or even have occasion to talk to. Soon, however, it became clear that few participants were even interested in finding out what "the other side(s)" really thought, still less in reaching some sort of consensus with them. On the contrary. Many, perhaps most, of the participants were using this mode of communication (the internet) in order to seek out and destroy "the enemy". In the end, all the "moderates" (i.e., the people who DID hope for some mutual understanding) were driven away. Take a look at the Insanity Thread now, for example. Total deterioration. Nothing but reciprocal abuse!!!
(And note also that it already has many more posts than Feelies, even though it is of much more recent vintage.)
3) Speaking of abuse: internet manners are much worse than manners in any other social setting one could imagine. Many people adopt net personae that clearly reflect sides of their personalities that they fear to express in "everyday" life. Anonymity, net rage, etc., also contribute to sour interpersonal communications.
4) There are many exceptions to the above, of course. But that is when the participants, as a group, have written or unwritten codes of behavior that they stick to.
5) As long as we are being negative here <smile>, here is another downer. Some people become internet addicts. That is to say, they use their communication with cyber people as a way of walling themselves off from/escaping from the real people that surround them. As the intensity of their basically undemanding relationships with cyber friends grows, their ability (or desire) to sustain more demanding relationships with "real" friends & family members weakens.
6) Now for the positive! What I personally enjoy on a thread like this one is the opportunity to exchange ideas/match wits with intelligent and informed people on a whole variety of subjects. It is, quite simply, fun.
Eeek, I'm late! Bye...
Joan |
