[Air-l] howard dean, social movements and clay shirky

[Nancy Baym]

In response to the Clay Shirky piece, Ren comments:

>I've been meaning to post about the same thing, the assertion in the
>piece that found most _interesting_ was this:
>
>"We know well from past attempts to use social software to organize
>groups for political change that it is hard, very hard, because
>participation in online communities often provides a sense of
>satisfaction that actually dampens a willingness to interact with the
>real world."
>
>Is there data to back this up ?


I had the same reaction to the same line and was surprised that in 
the comments reacting to the piece no one questioned this assertion. 
I find it implausible that people who are using the internet to 
retreat from offline life would choose a political action online 
community in which to do so. Perhaps some of the air-l readers whose 
work speaks more directly to political engagement can clarify this. 
Certainly in the interpersonal realm, those who use the internet most 
for interaction seem also to be those who communicate most 
face-to-face and on the telephone.

Nancy

-- 
Nancy Baym	http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym
Communication Studies, University of Kansas
Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 102, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574, USA
Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org