Internet Triumphalism
Tim Lee writes in defense of internet triumphalism. When I started out blogging in early 2002, normal people didn’t pay any attention to blogs and the ’sphere was full of internet triumphalism. I considered myself an internet triumphalism skeptic. Over time, though, I’m more and more a triumphalist. Let me give you an example that has nothing to do with the stuff Tim was talking about. Consider this sentence, that you might read in a newspaper:
According to a new Brookings Institution study by William H. Frey and Ruy Teixeira, one reason the states of the intermountain west are now increasingly “in play” politically is “the rapid population growth among two key democraphic segments — Hispanics and white college graduates — and the concomitant decline of the white working class.
Of course, I would never write a sentence like that on a blog. Instead I might write:
According to a new Brookings Institution study by William H. Frey and Ruy Teixeira, one reason the states of the intermountain west are now increasingly “in play” politically is “the rapid population growth among two key democraphic segments — Hispanics and white college graduates — and the concomitant decline of the white working class.”
To me, the internet version with the link to the actual text of the study has added a ton of value. And of course even if you’re stuck with the link-less print version, you can probably look up the actual text of the study on the internet. But without the internet, all you’ll get is this vague summary. It’s a simple thing we take for granted, but I think the ability to actually dig deeper into issues you read about and find interesting.
40 Responses to “Internet Triumphalism”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
August 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
That sauce tastes pretty good, Matt. You might need to add a little more reasoning to it, though.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Let’s be honest Matt, you would write something like:
According to a now Brookings Institution study by William H. Frey and Ruy Teixeira, one season the states of the intermountain west are know increasingly “in play” politically is “the rapid population growth among too key democraphic segments — Hispanics and white college graduates — and the concomitant decline of the white working class.
And pretty sure the newspaper would also spell reason correctly
August 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
On the one hand, I agree, it’s wonderful to have the option of looking things up if one is so inclined.
On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of evidence of too many people opting to do so. (For one, my research would suggest that even when people might want to, they may not all have the skills to do so efficiently and effectively.)
Even among bloggers – presumably folks who are more plugged in than many others – it’s quite fascinating to watch how often people will say “I don’t know X .. but” when figuring out what X is would take very little effort. I’ve found this discouraging. I’ve also seen plenty of cases where journalists don’t link to sources they could/should, which is annoying.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Two other differences: the newspaper writer probably would close the quotation marks, and as noted above might choose “reason” instead or “season.”
August 20th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
LOL FAIL
August 20th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Newspaper would also spell “demographic” correctly.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
LMAO @ typos. Internet rulz!
August 20th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Please let me be your copy editor.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
i agree that the link is a definite added value, but the real basis of internet triumphalism is the decline of the op-ed. i’m betting it’s less than 10 years until the op-ed pundit as we know him (and every so often, her) has disappeared….
August 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Matt, at this point, you’re just gratuitously throwing in typos just to screw with us, right? You’re just throwing us a bone. I mean, I know that you know that the one thing that people consistently make fun of you for is your reliably crappy spelling, and you don’t want to disappoint. If you weren’t screwing with us, the links wouldn’t work half the time, because you’d be typing “s hteg=” or somesuch.
I mean, please tell me it’s true, because the only other option is that you’re a real idiot. I mean, ’s’ and ‘r’ aren’t even next to each other on the keyboard!
August 20th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Well, I think the internet has allowed many to become a lot better informed. Regardless of whether, as Eszter observes, they are still not nearly as well informed as they could be. One of the reasons I don’t click through all that often is that I’m frequently surfing from work on short breaks during the day, so I don’t really have the time to dig all that deeply. But I still know a lot more than I would without the internet, even assuming I committed an equivalent amount of my time researching this stuff.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I mean, ’s’ and ‘r’ aren’t even next to each other on the keyboard!
Actually, the vast majority of Matt’s spelling mistakes are occuring on a higher level than mere typos. He’s either typing a homophone of the word he intended, or, as in this case he’s substituting one correctly spelled word for another word of similar phonetic structure (reason -> season), or even substituting one letter for another of the same phonemic family (demographic -> democraphic).
It is bizarre though; not even my first tentative drafts are remotely as bad as his final blog posts. Somewhere in his temporal cortex there are some crossed wires.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Some time ago I seem to remember Matt saying that he used Dragon NaturallySpeaking or some such, and I’ve always since assumed that that is the source of his homophones.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
But where are the military babes?
August 20th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
JH, are you saying MY can time travel?
August 20th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
“He’s either typing a homophone of the word he intended…”
yeah, like the way that “brooks” sounds just like “mccain”.
“Somewhere in his temporal cortex there are some crossed wires.”
yup. and for all that, i’d still trade my neural architecture for his in a flash.
face it, folks–he processes an astounding amount of info, at an astounding pace, and does some crackerjack analysis along the way. part of why he clicks on links where eszter’s subjects do not is because he is able to read and understand mountains of stuff, really fast, where most of us get bogged down looking at the captions under the photos.
would i trade that for making a few typos? hell yeah.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Yeah, Eric @13, well I certainly understand why the Dragon NaturallySpeaking people might want to keep quite about Matt’s use of their product. Sorry, I meant “quiet.”
Also, I notice that “season” has now been corrected to “reason” — rendering my cryptic comment above utterly meaningless — while “democraphic” remains as is.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
JH, are you saying MY can time travel?
The temporal cortices are the areas of the brain that, among other things, deal with hearing and most lower level language processes. Sadly, the ‘temporal’ thing has nothing to do with time travel.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Sadly, the ‘temporal’ thing has nothing to do with time travel.
Even if his thinking reaches 88 mph? Bummer.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Also, I notice that “season” has now been corrected to “reason” — rendering my cryptic comment above utterly meaningless — while “democraphic” remains as is.
That’s just odd. I mean, it’s normal that, when your readers point out hilarious and strange typos, you correct them. But to only correct one and leave the other? Matt, you’re one weird dude.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Italico. . . De-italico!
August 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Matt is correct – typos and all. If you ain’t clicking occasionally you aren’t paying attention and deserve to have the wool pulled over your eyes.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Even if his thinking reaches 88 mph? Bummer.
Both the blog post and this comment I find eerie, because just this morning I was thinking about Back To The Future II while driving to work (I don’t know why), and how we’re coming up on the “future” of that movie, and thus far hasn’t gotten anything right. In BTTF2’s 2015, they have flying cars, and yet the only way for Doc to find out that the “skyway” is jammed is to notice it on one of those traffic information billboards, for crying out loud.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I think it’s worth noting the distinction between internet triumphalism and blogosphere triumphalism.
Sure… hyperlinks, search engines, and free, widely-dispersed information add tremendous value to our public discourse. Only a clueless buffoon would suggest otherwise.
That’s an entirely separate matter from Glenn Reynolds-style blog triumphalism, which holds that an army of chickenhawk asshats with internet access will render the mainstream media obsolete and speed humankind headlong toward the singularity.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Of course, these days in print articles we get helpful :CueCat barcodes linking us to the relevant primary sources.
Okay, I’m out. Got to go oil my Segway.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
1) Matthew is merely displaying some of the habits of the aristos. For example, the most influential and powerful liberal journal in the world is known by some as “The Grauniad”. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_guardian#In_popular_culture
The description of “The Grauniad” by Jackie Ashley seems to match Matthew as well:
“clearly left of centre and vaguely progressive”
2) And I sure that Matthew will become a muesli-eating sandal wearer in the near future.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
What I don’t understand is why major news websites don’t provide links. Look at all the research cited in this cnn.com story on lowering the drinking age, and not one link to any of it.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
In fairness to the dinosaur old media, if this blog post had appeared in a newspaper, the last sentence of the item would have been completed, and in a grammatically correct way, no less. So it’s a tradeoff.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I noticed the same thing recently…I was reading an online article which contained no hyperlinks and found myself blinking at the screen, confused.
I’m in complete agreement, that the black box of print media is no longer a problem with the Internet. Now, when people are skeptical of some of the news info I give them, I can show them the original sources and documents. It rocks!
August 20th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Another “the sky is blue” post from Matt.
Thank you, Matt. I needed that.
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:41 am
levitraVery interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
March 11th, 2009 at 6:39 am
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 am
tramadol
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
buy viagra online
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
April 14th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I bookmarked this site, Thank you for good job!
viagra