The Internet
I'm on my way home to America today. Hopefully I'll be writing about this from the airport, but if not, my final story of the summer will get typed on the plane and posted on my arrival.
In the meantime, Will Baude and Jeremy Blachman have been having a good ol' time discussing how wonderful it is that blogs bring people together. I'm sceptical about this: the Internet, whatever its wonders, is just a more efficient way of making social networks work. Prior to blogging, there was email, and prior to email I used to write lengthy, hand-written, real-live paper letters. Nonetheless, meeting strange and far-flung people was always a matter of keeping ones ears open for coincidence: the internet just makes this easier.
That's not much of an opinion, really, but I wrote this in order to record what a skeptical friend of mine in England used to say about the matter: "The Internet: bringing people together by keeping them in hundreds of small rooms far apart."
Comments
Its like all kinds of other things, it can work for some people and for others it can't. Personally the longer I spend doing this stuff the more I've found that picking up a phone or talking with someone in person is much more effective than sending them an email.
On the other hand email is good, specially for people with whom the relationship is already good. Blogging can be better - although not necessarily.
Anyway, enjoy the trip. I guess you'll be in NY for the Republican Convention - are you planning on attending (can you?). Maybe you could go reason with the demonstrators...
yqjhtPosted by: martin | July 30, 2004 04:38 AM