superglaze writes "Remember Lee Siegel, the cultural critic who got sick of being anonymously abused on The New Republic's talkback facility, and tried (and failed) to hit back anonymously himself? He now has a book out — Against The Machine — about how the web is changing personalities and society, and not for the better.
ZDNet UK has done an interview with him, in which he calls for a debate on how to move web culture forward in a mature way. He says that, the way things are now, the loudest and rudest shouters win and the web's egalitarianism is crushing more "sensitive" souls. Siegel basically thinks there is a war for culture going on: "I have been thinking for a long time about the tension between culture and democracy, and that tension is crystallised on the internet, supposedly the most democratic medium...the pathologies of democracy are amplified on the web. You have an egalitarian anti-democracy, with the illusion that everyone can have a voice; if everyone sits around the table and shouts at the same time, the loudest voices drown out the more softly spoken voices. It's a popularity contest; people will do almost anything to get noticed. A lot of the stuff that happens on the web that passes for social interaction would never happen in real life."
Being a merry hive of abuse — but with a lot of thoughtful discussion going on — Slashdot could be a prime example for or against his argument. What do you think?" Link to Original Source
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