The Internet is Far Less Polarizing than Some Had Feared
People who spend a lot of time on Glenn Beck’s Web site are more likely to visit The New York Times’s Web site than average Internet users. People who spend time on the most liberal sites are more likely to go to foxnews.com than average Internet users. Even white supremacists and neo-Nazis travel far and wide across the Web.
Full op-ed by David Brooks in The New York Times.
What I find interesting about the Internet is how people will seek out information on issues they disagree with just to argue with others. They peruse articles and blogs to post comments knowing full well they will never change their opponents’ opinions. Yet they feel vindicated by posting their opinion.
I think the internet is what you make it. Perhaps we have more access to the information, but I think we use it only a means of furthering our own ideas.
I tend to read a wide variety of stuff, but I do pick through the articles that I really don’t argee with.
I’m not surprised at this result.
You can get too much of a good thing. A new study on Internet addiction in students likens “Crackberry” withdrawl to drug and alcohol addiction.
“Researchers at the University of Maryland who asked 200 students to give up all media for one full day found that after 24 hours many showed signs of withdrawal, craving and anxiety along with an inability to function well without their media and social links.”
People who get on the Internet like to explore the Internet. What else is new?