...the promise of the internet is contact. It seems to offer an antidote to loneliness, trumping even the most utopian urban environment by enabling strangers to develop relationships along shared lines of interest, no matter how shy or isolated they might be in their own physical lives. But proximity, as city dwellers know, does not necessarily mean intimacy. Access to other people is not by itself enough to dispel the gloom of internal isolation. Loneliness can be most acute in a crowd. -Laing — The Guardian
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Jane Jacobs last book hypothesized that culture has to be transferred via physical space and human contact or else it is lost. Online universities seem like a great idea in theory but don't really work.
The anonymity of the internet also allows people to escape some of the social constraints of gender, age, race, body type, disability etc.
the anominity of the internet exposes the true nature of people. Its ugly. go read the comments section on yourube videos...lots of racial slurs and deep seeded hatred out there. back in the day people got a good punch in the face for saying offensive things. the internet has stripped the social consequences of ill behavior.
we are living in 2 parallel worlds...the real world where political correctness has created a culture of fakes....and the other where you can be a complete pig with no consequence. bi-polar
in the old days people were just half full of shit all the time
Yes, YouTube has some of the worst comments.
I think its hard to say which is the truer nature. It seems like trolls are just out to provoke. I'm not convinced they even believe the things they post.
I don't think I like the idea that offensive statements should be met with violence. I'd rather see a troll's punishment be their own lack of credibility.
Speaking of trolls: Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house
I'm very familiar with every type of loneliness, and the internet will never really be an antidote to even the most basic case. I guess that is until it become some kind of fully immersive parallel dimension ala the Matrix, but by then it'll just create a new kind of loneliness, and people will have to start questioning what being human really means.
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jla-x,
There was an interesting segment on OnPoint today about online shaming. http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/04/02/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed-interview
It's strange that the same medium that can help a bullied teenager cope can also inspire and enable terrorists. It can both inspire architects and create a false picture of architecture at the same time.
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19950828,00.html
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