All true. But do you agree that as Americans, we are losing a common culture?
And that the loss of that common culture will cause potentially enormous, as yet unconsidered changes. And those changes might very well eventually prove the downfall of these United States? On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]>wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 8:24 AM, Jerry Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > > We have segmented into tiny little enclaves of like-minded people, who > > seldom venture out of their comfort zone. > > > > And although it is great in some ways, we have lost that common fabric, > and > > have not replaced it with anything. > > > > And that cannot be good. > > I honestly think it is a mixed bag. The downsides you've covered > fairly well, I think. But there are upsides as well. The problem with > having only 3 news broadcasts, for instance, is that it makes it even > more likely that the viewpoints that people have access to will be > homogeneous. A diversity of opinion and coverage has a lot to be said > for it. If the coverage happens to cover what you are interested in, > then great. If not, then you are SOL. I think that analysis of > television news, however, is the weakest case as television is still > an expensive medium to produce and the influence of the corporations > behind it is felt strongly enough that it tends to weed out a fair bit > of diversity that we might find in a less cost-intensive medium (like > the Internet). > > The new diversity has also yielded benefits in the area of > proliferation of specialty channels like the Discovery Channel(s), > National Geographic(s), niche sports channels like Fox Soccer Channel, > etc that provide access to programming that would have been > inconceivable 30 years ago. > > Really, though, I think that the commodification of communication > comes into its own the most (both good and bad) with the Internet. > This mailing list is an excellent example. People are creating > communities based on interest rather than geography. This has the > potential side effect of become echo chambers but also holds promise > for connecting people that might also never have the chance for a > community based on geography. > > For instance, the Internet has opened up possibilities for sexual > minorities that never existed before. Being queer or kinky in a number > of parts of the world (and this country) is a kind of dangerous > proposition. The Internet has allowed people to connect with > individuals from afar and get support and information that they never > would have before. And this, in turn, has actually lead to an increase > in the number of local, in person, groups catering to those > communities because it has created a less scary, low barrier to entry > way to find and connect with local people with similar interests. > > Information technology is enabling a wide variety of social changes. > That has its upsides and its downsides, but I think we would be remiss > if we just pined at "the way things were" and romanticized the past > without looking at the downsides to the way things were and the > benefits we've gained from the changes. Still very much a work in > progress though, but hey, that's life. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:304371 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
