Comments on: The web =/= the mob? http://futurismic.com/2009/12/15/the-web-the-mob/ Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001 Sat, 19 May 2012 23:03:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Rick York http://futurismic.com/2009/12/15/the-web-the-mob/comment-page-1/#comment-60646 Rick York Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:21:27 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=9820#comment-60646 Whenever a new widely available technology or medium comes around I and all of my secular progressives see it as the next great leveller. In my lifetime, I've seen TV hailed as the next great thing for social progress then, then lambasted because it wasn't. Cable television was welcomed as a anodyne to the crass commercialism of over-the-air broadcasting. We all know where that ended. It looks like the Web is heading in the same direction. Of course, the internet is the first truly interactive medium. Unfortunately, the Web has only strengthened people's innate desire to live and speak in echo chambers. Whether it's Glen Beck or Keith Olberman, we listen to the people we agree with. I'm as bad as anyone. I incline to Olberman. I absolutely loathe the spokespeople of the right. I try to mitigate this by subscribing to the RSS feed of "The Moderate Voice". The editors bend over backwards to present a full spectrum of political opinion. What it forces me to do is to remember that there are extremely smart conservatives out there. Because the barriers to entry on the Web are so low, I think we can continue to see much wider and more entertaining expression than any other medium. But, with the big media companies waking up to the financial potential of the Web, they are now encroaching more and more. We can expect that Hulu will go paid soon. Lala too. The Comcast purchase of NBC should terrify any thinking individual. The conclusion is that, as long as there are humans running and participating in any medium, they will be human, with all that entails. As long as men are scared of losing their supremacy, there will always be misogyny. Whenever a new widely available technology or medium comes around I and all of my secular progressives see it as the next great leveller. In my lifetime, I’ve seen TV hailed as the next great thing for social progress then, then lambasted because it wasn’t. Cable television was welcomed as a anodyne to the crass commercialism of over-the-air broadcasting.

We all know where that ended.

It looks like the Web is heading in the same direction. Of course, the internet is the first truly interactive medium. Unfortunately, the Web has only strengthened people’s innate desire to live and speak in echo chambers. Whether it’s Glen Beck or Keith Olberman, we listen to the people we agree with. I’m as bad as anyone. I incline to Olberman. I absolutely loathe the spokespeople of the right. I try to mitigate this by subscribing to the RSS feed of “The Moderate Voice”. The editors bend over backwards to present a full spectrum of political opinion. What it forces me to do is to remember that there are extremely smart conservatives out there.

Because the barriers to entry on the Web are so low, I think we can continue to see much wider and more entertaining expression than any other medium. But, with the big media companies waking up to the financial potential of the Web, they are now encroaching more and more. We can expect that Hulu will go paid soon. Lala too. The Comcast purchase of NBC should terrify any thinking individual.

The conclusion is that, as long as there are humans running and participating in any medium, they will be human, with all that entails. As long as men are scared of losing their supremacy, there will always be misogyny.

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