DrZoidberg
Contributor
We've had widespread use of Internet for 20+ years now. So what's happened? How has it changed our behavior? I'm not talking specifics. I'm interested in theory (which by necessity loses some nuance). Social media seems to be the big thing. Resulting in stuff like Flash mobs, killer klowns terror, Arab spring, joke candidates with actual power (Trump, Palin and Berlosconi) and the makers revolution.
I'm just trying to get a handle on the before and after. If I'm to take a poke at it... just guessing wildly here:
The world is getting weirder. It's getting weirder because the information flows aren't top - down any longer. Communication isn't from elites down. Communication as democratized. Now it goes in all directions. A lot of those now communicating, and getting attention aren't well educated. We get the emotional outburst as the main piece of news today. Which has zero brains, analysis or afterthought behind it. It's monumentally superficial. The entire communication of the world is now, basically, village gossip. But also democratic. Hard, if not impossible, to control by the elites.
So information got free. The problem is, all information got free. Not just the information we wanted. So it's more important to get attention than having anything to say.
BTW, I realize how this may come across as negative. It's not really. It's not a question of judging. It's a question of understanding. No matter how we may want to go back, we can't. So there's no point in being nostalgic. But there is a value in understanding how things have changed.
Am I right? Am I wrong? How am I wrong?
I'm just trying to get a handle on the before and after. If I'm to take a poke at it... just guessing wildly here:
The world is getting weirder. It's getting weirder because the information flows aren't top - down any longer. Communication isn't from elites down. Communication as democratized. Now it goes in all directions. A lot of those now communicating, and getting attention aren't well educated. We get the emotional outburst as the main piece of news today. Which has zero brains, analysis or afterthought behind it. It's monumentally superficial. The entire communication of the world is now, basically, village gossip. But also democratic. Hard, if not impossible, to control by the elites.
So information got free. The problem is, all information got free. Not just the information we wanted. So it's more important to get attention than having anything to say.
BTW, I realize how this may come across as negative. It's not really. It's not a question of judging. It's a question of understanding. No matter how we may want to go back, we can't. So there's no point in being nostalgic. But there is a value in understanding how things have changed.
Am I right? Am I wrong? How am I wrong?