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The science of Punching on

07 Feb 05:40am

Filed under: Conversation, Debating, Media, Science, Society, The Punch

Recently, Jason Tin wrote a rather satisfying article about the imminent death of the internet due to it collapsing under the weight of its own vapid incivility. He’s right. And you’ve seen it, of course.

Serious intellectual debate. Picture: AP

An online comment section can turn a group of people who pay their mortgages and love their kittens into petty, hateful stupid people braying non-sequiturs at each other like Tourettes’ donkeys. But, why?

Good question. Science, having nothing better to do, has come up with some rather intriguing answers. So if the internet is dead, then consider me the pathologist – the science wonk who goes picking around in its chest cavity with tweezers trying to determine what killed it.

Continue reading "The science of Punching on" »

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05:08pm | 07/02/12

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