Effort Better Spent Elsewhere?
April 13th, 2007
Tycho at Penny Arcade, one of my favorite comics now that Calvin and Hobbes is gone, wrote the following last Wednesday:
People seem to think that by posting in threads and agreeing with other people they are changing the world. They are not. They are posting in threads online. The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. Being outraged online is a form of entertainment, and refreshing a thread to receive a hit of consensus packs the thrill of genuine activism without requiring any sweat.
Which brings up the very good point— what is the point of activism in forums and blogs where everyone agrees with each other, ad naseum, but nothing happens. We’ve seen some spectacular failures, such as the Blagosphere hype of Snakes on a Plane but here’s a more controversial activist blog— Urban Counterfeiters.
Urban Counterfeiters reports on The Man stealing from the the little graphic designer. While I’m a big supporter of the idea and manifesto, I’m curious as to who exactly their audience is. Given the somewhat uncouth approach of the editorial staff there, it seems unlikely their message will be read by many who aren’t already part of the counter-culture movement. The question is, is Urban Counterfeiters following Tycho’s theory by preaching to the choir? What about the fact that Urban Counterfeiters successfully protested outside an Urban Outfitters?
Popularity: 4% [?]
April 13th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Some interesting related stuff over at Stanford:
The more time people spend using the Internet…the more they lose contact with their social environment. This effect is noticeable even with just 2-5 Internet hours/week, and it rises substantially for those spending more that 10 hours/week, of whom up to 15 percent report a decrease in social activities. Even more striking is the fact that Internet users spend much less time of talking on the phone to friends and family: the percentage reporting a decrease exceeds 25 percent – although it is unclear to what extent this represents a shift to e-mail even in communicating with friends and family, or a technical bottleneck due to a single phone line being preempted by Internet use.
link
April 13th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Link: http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/Press_Release/press_detail.html