The Internet and its cultural effects

[Zarquon]

Choice quote:
...it’s clear that technology and the mechanisms of the Web have been accelerating certain trends already percolating through our culture — including the blurring of news and entertainment, a growing polarization in national politics, a deconstructionist view of literature (which emphasizes a critic’s or reader’s interpretation of a text, rather than the text’s actual content), the prominence of postmodernism in the form of mash-ups and bricolage, and a growing cultural relativism that has been advanced on the left by multiculturalists and radical feminists, who argue that history is an adjunct of identity politics, and on the right by creationists and climate-change denialists, who suggest that science is an instrument of leftist ideologues. Even some outspoken cheerleaders of Internet technology have begun to grapple with some of its more vexing side effects...
Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/books/21mash.html?pagewanted=all)
So, do you think the internet is responsible for any of this purported increase in partisanship and ideological cocooning of people, adolescent instant-gratification seeking behaviour, the age of unreason and subjectivity, etc.?
I think that it is merely a communication tool that is enabling people to do what they have always done, albeit more effectively and efficiently; and that these 'concerns' are overblown and mostly old-media yearning for its lost influence.

[Americano]

I plowed through it but came away with more of reading a rant against Internet ability to generate widespread theft of artistic endeavors, writers and musicians in particular.

[Michael]

Choice quote:

Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/books/21mash.html?pagewanted=all)
So, do you think the internet is responsible for any of this purported increase in partisanship and ideological cocooning of people, adolescent instant-gratification seeking behaviour, the age of unreason and subjectivity, etc.?
I think that it is merely a communication tool that is enabling people to do what they have always done, albeit more effectively and efficiently; and that these 'concerns' are overblown and mostly old-media yearning for its lost influence.
I agree with your assessment. :)

1. The common critiques of the internet sound exactly the same as the common critique against television, or video games or any other modern phenomenon.

2. People have always been into lying and cheating and stealing. That's a big part of our cultural history. The internet just makes it easier to do and easier to track it, that's all. Same goes for plagarism - its always been a big thing - only now electronic tools make it so much easier to identify.

3. And yes, I do detect that common 'big media' obsession with blaming the net for destroying their business model. They won't shut up about that. Its doubly annoying because it is a bullshit argument. Big Media began its descent in the 1970's, long before the internet came along.

[Donkey]

I don't think the cultural effect of the internet should be understated, but I think it is vastly premature to try to measure it. One because it is too young, and two, because it is still evolving at a rate that makes any serious investigation out of date within months.

[Michael]

I don't think the cultural effect of the internet should be understated, but I think it is vastly premature to try to measure it. One because it is too young, and two, because it is still evolving at a rate that makes any serious investigation out of date within months.
Yes, any actual or significant cultural effects would likely take a decade or two to show up, though all of its most significant cultural characteristics are likely already present (just hard to identify at this point in time). All of the key characteristics of television were identified and evident by the early 1950s (just mostly ignored until much later). Likewise with computer/video games - we already knew from the early 1980s what effect video games were having. It just takes time for those small micro-trends to become large and noticeable on a cultural level.

That being said, I can't see the internet being too much different than the 'tv' cultural revolution that killed neighborhoods, communities and families as people tended to 'couch out' all by themselves for endless amusement.

[Donkey]

Yes, any actual or significant cultural effects would likely take a decade or two to show up, though all of its most significant cultural characteristics are likely already present (just hard to identify at this point in time). All of the key characteristics of television were identified and evident by the early 1950s (just mostly ignored until much later). Likewise with computer/video games - we already knew from the early 1980s what effect video games were having. It just takes time for those small micro-trends to become large and noticeable on a cultural level.

That being said, I can't see the internet being too much different than the 'tv' cultural revolution that killed neighborhoods, communities and families as people tended to 'couch out' all by themselves for endless amusement.
Yes and no. I may spend a lot of time on my couch on the internet, but it is a virtual neighborhood that isn't offered by television.

[Michael]

Yes and no. I may spend a lot of time on my couch on the internet, but it is a virtual neighborhood that isn't offered by television.
That might be good for you, but that don't do much for your real neighborhood and real family. They still suffer.