Conversation

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.

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  • stephen says:

    05:08pm | 07/02/12

    I think the reason some contributors lie when they use the internet, or they say one thing and then unconsciously mean another or that they issue themselves decorous protocols - these things masquerade as good manners - is because we have an undying yearn for Privacy. And the privacy we… Read more »

  • olive twist says:

    04:54pm | 07/02/12

    For the first time since 2007,  The Coalition will be elected to Australian federal government in 2020 and they will use 2020 Vision to outlaw The Punch . The next Liberal PM will be Harry Potter! Read more »

 

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