RE: [OPE] Rosa Lichtenstein

> The amount of noise that is gathered on the web never fails to amaze me...

Hi Dave:
 
I agree that it is a bizarre claim.
 
As for what you euphemistically call 'noise', I am actually quite interested
in the social psychology of Internet communications. From the narcissism
of blogs, to the way in which social networks are changing behavior, to
the way in which Twitter condenses discussion to a short number of words
and thereby precludes a meaningful discussion of complex topics, to the
formation of new slang only understandable to some, to the way in which
research by students has changed, to the interactive trading of personal
insults and generally rude behavior that we see with feedback on news stories,
to the flame wars on mailing lists (or, alternatively, over-regimented lists
where moderators are quick to expel members), we can see how these new
communications technologies (and I haven't even mentioned the cell phone yet!)
are changing social behavior. These cry out for serious, scholarly, non-
anecdotal studies by social psychologists.
 
Then, there is a somewhat different social psychological question which would
be worthwhile examining: how has the Internet changed behavior by Marxists
and other radicals and why is it that we see so much bizarre behavior by
radicals on the Net? Have their always been so many Leftist wing nuts and
the Internet allowed us to see how many there are out there or has the Internet
itself helped make many radicals (more) crazy?
 
In solidarity, Jerry
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Received on Thu Sep 10 09:41:18 2009