05.05.08
On Social Networking
Essay Week Spring 2008 runs from May 5th to May 9th, 2008. Each day Iíll present a short essay on a topic of concern to me; I have the option of including a pre-essay post giving updates on ongoing life events if necessary. All the essays this week will be here; the LiveJournal is on hiatus while I concentrate here. Some of the elements in these essays may be controversial; I hope, however, that most will be well-regarded and at least read with an open mind. If you have anything to say about them, please feel free to leave a comment; I read them all, even if I may not respond due to time or other concerns. To kick off this year’s first festival of words, I’ll discuss the impact of the so-called Web 2.0 and the associated lifestyle.
Just about a year ago, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore released The Assault On Reason, a lengthy discussion of the metamorphosis of American politics from a two-way participatory discussion to a “read-only” medium being distributed to the populace for recourseless consumption. Near the end of his book– most of which is a thinly-veiled j’accuse to the Bush Administration– Mr. Gore presents what he feels is the optimal solution to the malaise of discourse: the internet. Mr. Gore raises some interesting, and on the surface, valid points about the way American politics is increasingly ruled by statistics, strategic virtual gerrymandering, and the proper application of subtle or overt demagoguery. But, in its current state, I have to respectfully disagree that the internet is the panacea to America’s sickly cyclical political biosphere.