A great article appeared on the BBC website this past week discussing the most recent TED talks in which Harvard academic, Ethan Zuckerman, said that the Internet is not living up to its ‘promise.’ His argument is an interesting one.
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Highlighting social behavior on the net, Zuckerman said the social world of internet users is getting narrower, not broader as is commonly assumed, because individuals tailor their networks to like minded people and ideas rather than opening themselves up to different communities or alternatvie opinions. Likewise, he said that rather than ‘democratize’ the media by allowing anyone to contribute, media representation from the poorest parts of the world is signifficantly dropping compared to wealthier places.
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In a nutshell, Zuckerman said that internet users are not as connected as they think, and that the world wide web is not as wide as once thought. Check out his talk here and weigh in.
I agree that we often imagine ourselves to be much more connected than we actually are. And yeah, I think our “real life” social networks often map closely onto our virtual ones. But I also think there are some new opportunities to experience difference and meet new people online. Chat Roulette is something that could potentially bring you face to face with anyone with a computer, too bad it became an opportunity for people to show a bit too much of themselves.