Clive Thompsons new book sustains one of my major arguments for why social media are largely for the better, viz that they extend the skills of writing and argumentation to an unprecedented scale, far beyond the small traditional academic, media and intellectual elite. As Thompson points out, before the web very few people wrote for the public sphere; even most academics didnt have access to magazines, newspapers or book publishers. Now hundreds of millions of people are engaged in more or less public dialogue on the web. The cultural, social and political consequences of this vast democratic and anarchic process of discursive self-schooling are potentially enormous - and the outcome is uncertain. Except for some irritating nuisances (trolls and hate-speakers) this renewal and enormous extension of public discourse in the last 15 years is actually one of the few aspects of contemporary society that makes me optimistic about the future.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 21:03:52 +0000
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