Comments on: Six scary things about the internet

By: lclandfield

lclandfield — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:14:49 +0000

Gulp. Yes there is that as well. Please don’t depress yourself, and no need to share this on your social network!

There’s a great little comment about popularity and quality in marketing terms on Seth Godin’s latest blog btw http://bit.ly/IEeo. And there was a book out recently about this too… cannot remember the title though!

By: yearinthelifeofanenglishteacher

yearinthelifeofanenglishteacher — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:09:03 +0000

Here’s another scary thing: the internet is bringing parity to everything, nothing is exceptional, weird, taboo or (in)appropriate. You go to a teaching blog and you are invited to share what you read on your social network, subscribe to the rss feed or newsletter, leave comments, etc. Alternatively, you go to mule-pleasurers-r-us and… you are invited to share what you read on your social network, subscribe to the rss feed or newsletter, leave comments, etc. The internet environment is normalising the just plain wrong.

Here’s another thing: everything is measured in popularity rather than if it is any good.

I have more but I’m depressing myself.

By: lclandfield

lclandfield — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:18:09 +0000

I’ve seen snopes before, but thanks for the timely reminder Mark. Great stuff.

By: Nick Jaworski

Nick Jaworski — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:05:19 +0000

Actually isn’t flaming and troll-like behavior a medical condition? Wait a couple more years and I bet it will be. There will also be a lot of great, expensive meds to fix the problem as well I’m sure.

By: Mark Bain

Mark Bain — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:14:36 +0000

And then there’s the Internet’s antidote to conspiracy theories, urban myths and email hoaxes, http://www.snopes.com. So it’s not all bad!

By: Mark Bain

Mark Bain — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:06:57 +0000

Hi Steph,
Articles based on “early results” of unnamed and as-yet-unpublished papers are highly dubious, regardless of which newspaper prints them. Sadly, many people will take this as gospel, not bothering to read and critique the actual research when it is published, and thus perpetuate such nonsense.

By: lclandfield

lclandfield — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:34:20 +0000

You’re right about a tendency to make syndromes out of everything. It’s getting to be too much.

You’re also right about those damn flamers and trolls!

By: Nick Jaworski

Nick Jaworski — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:18:40 +0000

I find the Western, especially American, tendency to medicalize behavior rather ridiculous. There was a great New York Times article on this a few weeks ago that made the Twitter rounds http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html

As for flamers and trolls, they can go to hell and die

By: cynicalsamaritan

cynicalsamaritan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:39:25 +0000

Agreed on all six. Another scary thing is the fact that conspiracy buffs of all types now feed each other’s delusions about everything under the sun.

By: Karenne Sylvester

Karenne Sylvester — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:14:15 +0000

don’t worry, that’s what happens in the blogosphere, topics trend… but anyway, back as have 10 mins to go before class -

I missed no 6. and want to say something:

Sometimes.

And in other ways, it is also creating an amazing environment of sharing real stuff, real emotions, real thoughts, developing friendships and especially in the edublogosphere: well… you know what you do for example (and so many others) and all for no money: just the fun and pleasure of sharing one’s idea and knowledge with a mostly anonymous audience.
Right, time to pack bag and computer.

Ciao,
K