Matt Yglesias

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.