Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: bowlingalone.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to bowlingalone.com.

Comments · 7

  1. Re:And it's only going to get worse by Third+Position · · Score: 1 · on Rise of the Warrior Cop: How America's Police Forces Became Militarized

    Human nature may not have changed. But our society has.

  2. And before that we blamed TV. by porkchop_d_clown · · Score: 2 · on Internet to Blame for Lack of Close Friends

    What was the name of that book? Bowling Alone?

  3. Leave it to the New York Times ... by radicalsubversiv · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Web Profits in the Gutter
    ... to write an articulate article, with lots of sweeping claims from important-sounding people, which doesn't really offer much to substantiate its claims.

    In some ways, I wish the "cyberspace" notion had never been introduced, because it furthers bad analogies like these, comparing the net to a geographical neighborhood, which has apparently become a red-light district.

    The reality, of course, is that the internet is a communication medium, not a neighborhood, and the apparently-proliferating number of sleazy businesses making use of it proves very little. Sure, you can make money selling fake penis-enlargement pills at a $57 markup, so long as you can find suckers (although I do admit being a bit surprised that there are so many of them).

    Brewster Kahle is right on point, even if his thoughts are buried in the article:
    Brewster Kahle, who has created a large Internet archive he calls the Wayback Machine, which contains several times the amount of information in the Library of Congress, said that the number of questionable sites is beside the point so long as search engines do their job.

    "We don't worry about how many pages that I don't care about are in the Internet archive," he said. "What you do care about is, `Does it have the pages that I want?' "
    Now if only the NY Times would stop running articles about the supposed decline of electronic "civil society," and start commentataing on the actual decline of actual civil society. Or, heaven forbid, the sleazy nature of elected officials and their corporate benefactors.
  4. Re:Senator Biden is my Senator by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2 · on Sneaking DRM Amendments Through the Back Door
    Au contraire -- Your utopia exists only in the commercials

    Not commericials, family sitcoms. This is why Everybody Loves Raymond. They live is a world not too different from our own, except that people, who have their good and bad moments, are generally good, with consideration and caring for others.

    --
    Read Bowling Alone - The Collapse and Revival of American Community

  5. Re:Symptomatic of a larger problem by Math+Library · · Score: 1 · on Why Linux Won't Ever Be Mainstream

    For an excellent treatment of how rudeness, indifference, and "looking out for number one" really are indicative of some disturbing trends in the U.S., I recommend Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone. There's something in this book for everyone. Check it out, or comment if you've read it. The website is good too.

  6. Bowling alone by kyoko21 · · Score: 1 · on Can The eXperimental Computing Club Survive?

    This is sort of a side note, though I thought perhaps it could be something related. Bowling Alone is a book that raises the issue of how socially disconnected we have become. Some of its examples in its earlier chapters show the decline in attendance as well as various's clubs and social events to recruit new members within the last 25 years of the century. I read through a few chapters this weekend when I was looking through Walden books (can't believe they are still around) and I found it was quite an interesting reading (I was thinking about buying it, but I think I can get it cheaper online elsewhere...). I recommend this book and perhaps we will see future discussion on this topic of social disengagements.

  7. Bowling Alone by David+Hume · · Score: 4 · on Can The eXperimental Computing Club Survive?

    It would seem that old-fashioned face-to-face contact is somehow becoming unfashionable. The Internet does not provide an adequate replacement for physical socialising.
    You might be interested in the book (and website) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which addresses at least some of your concerns regarding the need for "physical socialising."

    There is an article by the author of the book, Robert Putnam, here: Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital.

    There is an interview with the author here: An interview with Robert Putnam about America's collapsing civic life.