Op-Ed Columnist - Riders on the Storm - NYTimes.com

In the mid-20th century, Americans got most of their news through a few big networks and mass-market magazines. People were forced to encounter political viewpoints different from their own. Moreover, the mass media gave Americans shared experiences. If you met strangers in a barbershop, you could be pretty sure you would have something in common to talk about from watching the same TV shows.

Sunstein wondered whether the Internet was undermining all this. The new media, he noted, allow you to personalize your newspapers so you only see the stories that already interest you. You can visit only those Web sites that confirm your prejudices. Instead of a public square, we could end up with a collection of information cocoons.

via www.nytimes.com

I have to study this more. Brooks doesn't explain it properly but it makes sense. People live in their silos of prejudice but every now and then they want to verify these prejudices.

This seems to be true. Like with like and all that.

I listened to Rush Limbaugh recently and he was just as awful ever and I did wonder if rather than being open-minded I was seeking to reinforce my distaste for the man.

I thought that was random and rare but it seems people go on "forays looking for things to hate" far more often than I thought they would do.

But the article stops at the point it gets most interesting by suggesting that the internet is not responsible for this polarization. Umm, so what is then?

Comments

[Bernie Goldbach]

I got a haircut two days ago. While with Joe the barber, one guy asked me about the horses (I don't follow horses), another guy asked me about the hurling (I could not admit to favouring a team in another county) and the barber wanted to talk about a burned-out house. In my daily life, I do not follow newsfeeds about horses, hurling or derelict structures. The world would be a better place if we all planned our haircuts in crowded salons. We'd return to a more diverse diet of information.

[Tom Murphy]

Mark Little picks up on this report here and expands upon it beautifully. He also describes a solution to 'filter failure.' I hope he is successful but it will be interesting to watch what happens anyway. http://storyful.com/blog/2010/04/26/bring-me-wonder-and-magic-and-i%E2%80%99ll-love-you-forever/