Where has all the intelligence gone?
If you’re an active internet user, you’ve probably run into the lack of intelligence that occurs here. When it comes to scouring any sort of news agency site or other form of informational display, and having to scan through ignorant and absurd comments, it’s hard not to sit back and sigh at the lack of intelligence that is so willfully displayed everywhere on the internet.
I say everywhere on the internet because I’m generalizing, and what better way to make a point then generalize about it? Yes, I probably shouldn’t be doing so; however, it’s hard not to when it’s so prevalent. I’m short set to find an intelligent forum of ideas. Regardless, excuse my ignorance on the vast expanse of the internet if you feel my points are misguided and irrelevant.
Ok, back to the subject. Idiocy, where is it? And how can I find it? Well, in all honesty, it’s hard not to find it. If you’ve ever taken a hop over to popular social news site “Digg.com”, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Essentially, at Digg, anyone can post a story and it’s rated and polarized into one direction or another depending on it’s value to the community. In short, if it’s good, it gets “Dugg” and if not, it gets “Buried”. If you’re an active user there, you’ll understand the rest of this story, if not, I suggest reading the rest of this and then skipping over to Digg and signing up and hang out for a bit, you’ll without a doubt see a few trends.
What trends? Well any Digg user knows, (regardless as to whether or not they’ll admit it) that Digg user’s are a tight-knit bunch and have very strong opinions on an array of subjects.
For instance, you’ll notice that anything that agrees with the government will never reach the front page of Digg. It doesn’t matter what the content may be. The news article could depict a story about how the US Government will be providing free health care to everyone in the world with no strings attached, and it STILL wouldn’t make the front page. Why? Well because Digg users have this site-wide effort to “stick it to the man” and any order through politics simply is out of the question.
Something of which is much more obvious happens to be the tremendous ignorance found within the story comments. Typically, the comments include some form of a few popular “Net Phrases” such as “In Soviet Russia, Car Drives YOU!” or something or another, and of course the oh so typical “OMG” comment. While this is great and all, the comments generally offer nothing insightful in regards to the story. In fact, 90% of the comments in a story are usually in reference to another user’s ignorance and resemble something like this: “@joeas: - You’re a dumbass”
While I respect that user’s right to call the person in question a “dumbass” I’m not sure the story for “Apple Releases the iPhone” warrants the necessity. I’d love to use the “Diggs” system when it comes to viewing comments. However, anything intelligent is usually dugg down to the same level as the idiotic comments, so it’s hard to even differentiate anything via the built in filters.
It’s honestly not a problem exclusive to Digg.com, I once attended Slashdot to obtain my technology news; however, Slashdot’s become so bogged down by idiotic and irrelevant comments that it’s hard to even read a story without getting side tracked by the ridiculous attitudes that people place against the articles.
So back to the point in question…Where has all the intelligence gone?
Where are the “thinkers” of the internet? And by that I don’t mean the smart people. The internet is loaded with brains, and luckily enough we live in a world where smart people are very common. (I think). But I’m talking about “intelligent” people. The Jon Stewarts and Bill Mahers. The people who can look at something, think logically, consider the reality of the world and formulate an opinion based on that alone.
Where are the people who can watch the TED conference speakers and derive an opinion based on the knowledge or entertainment presented toward them.
There’s no “forum” (more like a venue…not the message board type) for these people. Digg has them, Slashdot has them and I’m sure there’s a million other sites on the internet who have multi levels of intelligence swimming around; however, they get drowned out in the pool of stupidity and ignorance that the internet survives on.
Maybe one day we’ll live in a world where we can exchange ideas like adults in a logical and helpful manner without the insults and immaturity…Right, I can dream, can’t I?