Weblog on the Internet and public policy, journalism, virtual community, and more from David Brake, a Canadian academic, consultant and journalist

Archive forApril 2nd, 2002 | back to home

2 April 2002
Filed under:Uncategorized at11:01 am

An interesting news item about relationships that start online suggesting they might be better than ones that start more conventionally. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the detail of the study referred to in the news report.

I would say that it can work both ways – it can allow people to be more emotionally open but it also encourages (even more than usual) projection of positive characteristics onto the person you are corresponding with that may not actually be real, and because text can’t transmit tone of voice or body language it is dangerously prone to misunderstanding. So proceed… but with caution would be my advice.

Filed under:Uncategorized at8:25 am

Perhaps because of the difficulty in opposing software and intellectual piracy privacy without looking impossibly self-righteous or in the pay of big corporations, Garry Trudeau rather fudges the message this time around (in this and the 5 following strips). This is a pity, since the message “go ahead, take anything you like” promulgated across much of the Internet is one that needs some criticism by voices outside the industry.