enthalpy

Monday, February 18, 2008


The internet is evil because someone said some bad things about me on their myspace page. [Holy crap I gotta stop reading this.]
In Mr. Siegel's rendering, the Internet promotes a form of cultural obesity – its vastness, often heralded as an unparalleled good, now threatens our intellectual health. Journalists and critics who should approach this new medium with healthy skepticism instead kowtow to the latest online trend, aiding and abetting the public in its uncritical embrace of technology.
This may seem in contradiction my an earlier post but I don't think so. Just like I don't think that the term "reading books" is a good indication of your intellectual health (how many million hard-cover turds did Steven King and Danielle Steel churn out last year?), "internet usage" can be as good as it is bad. For every dancing hamster there's at least a dozen or so Federalist Papers. Use it as you will. But he goes off the deep end here:
Not surprisingly, Mr. Siegel is especially exorcised by the loss of authority of the cultural critic; like travel agents, critics have seen their business severely compromised by the Internet. Yet the passenger who conveniently purchased his ticket online is often dismayed to find that he has no reliable advocate to intervene with the airline when his flight is suddenly cancelled.
What a horribly pithy example of the industries the internet is proving we don't really need. What "reliable advocate" are you going to call on when the 7:15 to Cleveland gets canceled? Travel agents, apartment locators, phone books printed newspapers, listen up: We don't need you.



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