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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Random thoughts

Despite it's ability to offer broader access to the world, the internet has narrowed most people's understanding because it has allowed them more access to more material to reinforce their beliefs.

Supporting belief: People tend to seek out "news" to support their already existent belief system. People are more willing to change their "news" to match their beliefs than vice versa.

Third: The distance (and hatred) in our politics derives from the fact that we live in different media realities. (FoxNews vs. MSNBC for example.)

Reiterating: Increasing media choice has not brought us broader understanding through access to more knowledge and viewpoints. It has allowed us to take ourselves further into our previous dispositions.

2 Comments:

  • Surfing the blogs yesterday, I ran across a conservative blog whose head banner had the line:

    Since the MSM is biased, I get my News from Fox news and Rush Limbaugh.


    I had to laugh, but it is not really funny, it's sad.
    It's normal for like minds to comfort each other, but the lack of interest in another kind of thinking, or more to the point a refusal to hear another point of view is startling and I think even dangerous.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:51 AM  

  • Oh,I wasn't trying to be high-minded. I do it, too.

    I was just struck, after listening to two days of that guys white supremacist garbage, just how ironic it is.

    We have this new technology that allows us to look at the world, and yet all we use it for is to find ways to burrow farther up our own asses.

    (The guy who invented TV believed that man would be lifted up as Shakespeare and Opera would finally be available to everyone.

    Now, with a couple hundred channels, I couldn't find either.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:54 AM  

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