Knows No Bounds
Posts: 3,154 
December 31st, 2006, 11:12 AM
Mike, a low key but impassioned response! I can agree with many of the sentiments expressed. The Internet is a "curiosity' still for many and remains out of reach to the majority of the globe's citizens. It has become a haven for net tribes and a home for the dispossessed of a thousand disparate philosophical and cultural persuasions.
I just hope you're right. That the web is evolving. That it will become more efficient and democratic. That something intrinsically good will win out. That it will be something to make us and our world better.
But what I think is happening is that we're losing our focus. Too much of a good thing ain't. Communication has become so splintered and fragmented in cyberspace, the emergence of blogs and vlogs inviting further segmentation, that wired societies are ceasing to function as directed groups.
This posting board has more traffic than many but most boards are just soapboxes less the soap. Most blogs are unread. Most community forums and threads poorly attended. Cyber hotspots are filled with folk
more interested in being cool than thinking. The net is a huge social phenomenon but as a springboard for political consciousness it's a flop.
In the days when key newspapers allowed a clear polarization of opinion and people could register their beliefs through them and apply pressure by the weight of that opinion I think our influence on government was stronger.
Now dissent is often easily deflected because it lacks a determined and broadbased core. The Internet gives its participants the illusion of influence. And that is one of its chief failings.
We're busy building a future in Canada and one of our helpers is the Internet. Personally, most days it ain't doing much for Santa.
Mike, a low key but impassioned response! I can agree with many of the sentiments expressed. The Internet is a "curiosity' still for many and remains out of reach to the majority of the globe's citizens. It has become a haven for net tribes and a home for the dispossessed of a thousand disparate philosophical and cultural persuasions.
I just hope you're right. That the web is evolving. That it will become more efficient and democratic. That something intrinsically good will win out. That it will be something to make us and our world better.
But what I think is happening is that we're losing our focus. Too much of a good thing ain't. Communication has become so splintered and fragmented in cyberspace, the emergence of blogs and vlogs inviting further segmentation, that wired societies are ceasing to function as directed groups.
This posting board has more traffic than many but most boards are just soapboxes less the soap. Most blogs are unread. Most community forums and threads poorly attended. Cyber hotspots are filled with folk
more interested in being cool than thinking. The net is a huge social phenomenon but as a springboard for political consciousness it's a flop.
In the days when key newspapers allowed a clear polarization of opinion and people could register their beliefs through them and apply pressure by the weight of that opinion I think our influence on government was stronger.
Now dissent is often easily deflected because it lacks a determined and broadbased core. The Internet gives its participants the illusion of influence. And that is one of its chief failings.
We're busy building a future in Canada and one of our helpers is the Internet. Personally, most days it ain't doing much for Santa.
Steven Hawking's Tutor
Posts: 4,604 
December 31st, 2006, 11:23 AM
Tamarin
Do you appreciate how difficult it is for me to avoid pushing the book I'm writing that looks at the evolution of "communication"...
I start with basic stuff like Shanon and move on to Marshal McLuhan then to David Cronenberg and William Gibson...
Sort of a "Yaqi in the Bouroughs" (with appologies to Carlos Castenedas) perspective on the modern tower of babel.....the new "super-highway" of amputation....
Tamarin
Do you appreciate how difficult it is for me to avoid pushing the book I'm writing that looks at the evolution of "communication"...
I start with basic stuff like Shanon and move on to Marshal McLuhan then to David Cronenberg and William Gibson...
Sort of a "Yaqi in the Bouroughs" (with appologies to Carlos Castenedas) perspective on the modern tower of babel.....the new "super-highway" of amputation....
Knows No Bounds
Posts: 3,154
December 31st, 2006, 02:10 PM
Mike, sounds like an interesting project! Make sure you travel the untrodden path as well. I've never considered McLuhan to be much more than an upstart. Yes, and I've been held down since university days and had his ideas poured down my throat. Just because someone insists a figure has relevance doesn't mean he has. He simply wasn't as sharp a communicator as I expected of a person supposedly at that 'level.' I wouldn't give his books the time of day. And make sure you make room for the princes of communication, the stylists. Gems.
Mike, sounds like an interesting project! Make sure you travel the untrodden path as well. I've never considered McLuhan to be much more than an upstart. Yes, and I've been held down since university days and had his ideas poured down my throat. Just because someone insists a figure has relevance doesn't mean he has. He simply wasn't as sharp a communicator as I expected of a person supposedly at that 'level.' I wouldn't give his books the time of day. And make sure you make room for the princes of communication, the stylists. Gems.
