The mentality of Homo interneticus: Some Ongian postulates
Abstract:
A picture of internet culture.
Body:
"The
mentality of Homo interneticus: Some Ongian postulates", by Michael
H. Goldhaber.
This article first classifies cultures into groups that use oral, written text, printed text, and Internet text as the defining means of communication. From there, Goldhaber looks at how Internet culture is different from print culture and, towards the end, speculates on where this might take us.
Goldhaber's analysis of Internet culture is interesting. I don't always agree with his positions, but in the process he does a good job of exposing the characterizing differences between the cultures surrounding print and Internet texts. For example, in print one becomes popular and authoritative from frequent citation, but on the Internet one becomes popular by frequently citing others (consider the difference between Plato or Euclid and Slashdot or Google). The Internet, because of its different nature, has a habit of turning print culture in new directions, much as print culture turned written culture in new, previously unthought of directions (e.g. copyright).
Unfortunately, the paper stops short of providing any real practical suggestions or predictions for folks living in the Internet age. His concluding predictions show a poor understanding of the sexual division of labor and overestimate the power of decentralized networking (at which point, I think, he succumbs to buzz, which he avoided through the rest of the paper). I feel like I have a better grip on what it means to be an Internet user, but lack a real sense of how I might, for example, draw on advantages of prior communication cultures and incorporate them with advantages of Internet culture to go beyond a culture created by primarily Internet texts. But, I can't fault Goldhaber too much, since I don't think this was his purpose in writing. However, I do hope that he or someone else takes these thoughts in that direction, finding ways to help Internet users take advantage of the Internet without losing the essential benefits of oral, written, and printed communication.
This article first classifies cultures into groups that use oral, written text, printed text, and Internet text as the defining means of communication. From there, Goldhaber looks at how Internet culture is different from print culture and, towards the end, speculates on where this might take us.
Goldhaber's analysis of Internet culture is interesting. I don't always agree with his positions, but in the process he does a good job of exposing the characterizing differences between the cultures surrounding print and Internet texts. For example, in print one becomes popular and authoritative from frequent citation, but on the Internet one becomes popular by frequently citing others (consider the difference between Plato or Euclid and Slashdot or Google). The Internet, because of its different nature, has a habit of turning print culture in new directions, much as print culture turned written culture in new, previously unthought of directions (e.g. copyright).
Unfortunately, the paper stops short of providing any real practical suggestions or predictions for folks living in the Internet age. His concluding predictions show a poor understanding of the sexual division of labor and overestimate the power of decentralized networking (at which point, I think, he succumbs to buzz, which he avoided through the rest of the paper). I feel like I have a better grip on what it means to be an Internet user, but lack a real sense of how I might, for example, draw on advantages of prior communication cultures and incorporate them with advantages of Internet culture to go beyond a culture created by primarily Internet texts. But, I can't fault Goldhaber too much, since I don't think this was his purpose in writing. However, I do hope that he or someone else takes these thoughts in that direction, finding ways to help Internet users take advantage of the Internet without losing the essential benefits of oral, written, and printed communication.
Posted: Mon - June 14, 2004 at 08:15 PM |
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Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category: 104
Published On: Mar 28, 2007 07:08 PM
Total entries in this category: 104
Published On: Mar 28, 2007 07:08 PM