You're the Teacher

Anderson's Ted talk was interesting to say the least. He is counted as one of the "innovators" he was speaking of. But his desire to share, to "open up" his ideas and his medium is causing his idea to spread. I suppose this is what the utopian idea of the web has been for its innovators. Rather than stifling and hording ideas, you open them up to the world and encourage imitation.

But imitating Ted is not a passive kind of piracy. As Anderson says, it takes "huge amounts of effort." He describes those who imitate as "teachers." And each one of us has the capacity to be that teacher to the world. Very inspiring. It definitely casts a positive light on these new tools - the video/internet interface. And this idea of "crowd accelerated innovation" seems a lot like education, only you're flattening the traditional model. Here, anyone is an educator. There are no rules, no paperwork or exams. Your experience is your ethos and your work is your lesson.

I got a little "spark" from what Anderson said about video being the return to face-to-face communication. The spark came in the form of a forehead-slapping moment. This new IText form of communication is simply a proxy for face-to-face communication. Whether it's video or Twitter or mobile phone texts, the result is the same. We are simply replicating this face to face interaction that we cannot always have. We have even replicated the speech patterns, in the case of these short-hand writing styles. But video seems to be the most authentic form of this new way of communicating. Rhetoric seems to be coming full-circle by returning to the roots of delivery via sound, sight and speech.

There are the darker sides of this rhetorical revolution, such as Wallace's "Asians in the Library." The ability to respond in-kind seems to counter the evil that can be injected into the webosphere. Is this productive? A bunch of bickering back and forth? Hate being spewed in every direction? "Tatas hangin' out" and "skeezy white trash" (xmonmon) comments don't seem to meaningfully contribute to the discourse of racial tolerance. Rants tend to be self-serving, a kind of invective spewed out to like-minded individuals who take pleasure either in other people's self-loathing or those looking for a fight. I've been guilty of this. For about two weeks I was addicted to the Jerry Sandusky/Joe Paterno drama in the online forums at ESPN.com. Go ahead - judge me. I deserve it.

ua.edu

 This leads me to the age of rage article by Adams. This new form of cyber-bullying is in most cases aided by the use of aliases. Remaining anonymous has emboldened a new generation of bullies, able to carry out their verbal attacks without even the underlying fear of having their asses kicked by picking on the wrong person. I believe the "kick" is the same for these people as it is for the physical bully. Their reward is seeing the level of discourse descend into bickering. Whatever their agenda, their goal is to steer the agenda of everyone else off track. I've read about and experienced these types of people in group dynamics. This "deindividuation" is certainly the underbelly of chat rooms and forums. Instead of growing as individuals, these "trolls" detract from not only their own potential, but the potential of the group by drawing others into a "mob mentality." Trolls usually end up garnering much of the attention. In some cases, as Adams points out, they become more popular than the blogger or author of the piece that is being debated.

But there is that good with the bad balance that the online community must strike. Anonymity allows for freer expression. But it also leads to anarchy. The question is who polices it? A moderator? The online community? Is there a way to eliminate trolling? And what about the people who don't hide behind an alias. What about the Wallace's of the world? Do we simply place them in the category of sad human beings or do we stand up and fight back? The irony of the web is that stupidity and hate can create popularity. I suppose that is true in a lot of media. I'd love to hear some other thoughts on this. It's all so new and yet we are debating the pros and cons already. The genie is out of the bottle. But where's the palace?