[p2p-research] The Internet Is Absolute Democracy - Be Very Afraid!

[Michel Bauwens]

As far as I can remember, though one would instinctively tend to agree that
self-chosen media could lead to isolation, I think the evidence of this
actually happening so far is limited and contradictory, I think there are
studies claiming both ways (if I remember, Pew studies concluded that active
internet users are also the most engaged in citizenship issues). Technology
can have contradictory effects, think of both more multiculturalism and
cosmopolitanism, while at the same time, immigrant communitues may be more
enclosed because they can watch more of their own cultural production, even
when living abroad, and so 'integrate' less

I think much depend also on the ideology of the users themselves. In our own
milieu, I would assume that people belong to different online communities,
and that there is a cross-fertilization of ideas etc...

But the point is, one has to be careful and thoughtful and think through,
not engage in 'be very afraid' rethoric,

that article didn't add any light on the issue, but creates a dumbing dawn
stram men enemy not conducive to any understanding,

Michel


On 4/26/09, Kevin Carson <free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 4/23/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > hmm ... the classic critique about the internet was its fragmentation and
> > lack of unified public space,
> >
> > now they're saying everybody thinks the same on the internet?
>
> The two critiques aren't necessarily contradictory; both could apply
> to an Internet in which discussion is fragmented into ideological
> communities, but each one turns into an "echo chamber" that doesn't
> come into direct contact with ideas from other communities that they
> disagree with.
>
> --
> Kevin Carson
> Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
> Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com
> Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
> http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
> Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
>
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