I’ve said for a while that the Internet tends to isolate us, and our opinions, from other people and their beliefs. I believe it’s in the way the Internet was designed. I think Eli Pariser, president of MoveOn.org, does as well.   

“Instead of connecting us to the world, the Web is connecting us back to ourselves in an invisible feedback loop”

I suppose one could always look for the opposing view, which is rarely offered. Using the system is definitely something that relies on the individual fighting their own instinctual tendency, but I think he skirts the root of the problem which has to do with the nature of search and retrieval systems themselves – the main way we deal with the Internet. We find what we are looking for, and by extension, people who share our views and places that reinforce them. So fighting that tendency is not only fighting human nature, it’s fighting the nature of the network itself.

If the comments are anything to go by, some people are threatened to the point of anger by this article, which seems to criticize their perfect totem.  Another example of the kind of tribal microculture that has become so prevalent in the world.