Using the Internet to Bring Us Together
Posted by Tony Miller
on Nov 07, 2009
Does the Internet and tech gadgetry only serve to isolate us from our peers and splinter society? Don't believe it! Read the latest results from the Pew report, then visit the Palo Alto University Rotary Club presence on Facebook!
In a recent blog post on O'Reilly Radar (1), Joshua-Michele Ross discussed the fear that the Internet is making us more isolated in our relationships.
He quoted from a piece in the New Yorker that introduced the idea of group polarization. This happens when people use the Internet to interact with others who have the same views, and they become more extreme in their views as a result.
Whereas this could be cause for concern, it seems that the latest Pew report (2) demonstrates how people use the internet to interact with more people of different views, backgrounds and race than in the past. More on this topic:
(1) "Three Paradoxes of the Internet Age - Part One" http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/three-paradoxes-of-the-internet-age.html (2) "Internet gear isn't isolating us..." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/05/BUI11AEM99.DTL (3)"The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online" by Danah Boyd http://www.danah.org/paper
He quoted from a piece in the New Yorker that introduced the idea of group polarization. This happens when people use the Internet to interact with others who have the same views, and they become more extreme in their views as a result.
Whereas this could be cause for concern, it seems that the latest Pew report (2) demonstrates how people use the internet to interact with more people of different views, backgrounds and race than in the past. More on this topic:
(1) "Three Paradoxes of the Internet Age - Part One" http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/three-paradoxes-of-the-internet-age.html (2) "Internet gear isn't isolating us..." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/05/BUI11AEM99.DTL (3)"The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online" by Danah Boyd http://www.danah.org/paper
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