Erin, you need to get to bed if you are not going to oversleep.

says the one who should also be asleep.

you want a go to bed and get up nagging buddy?

I've got $65 of NUBAR stuff. DJ, you have any interest in buying some? That would at least keep either of us from shipping somewhere to split an order.

Plei, it sounds like you've had a horribly maddening day.

One thing I have been thinking about Post Prop 8 Ruling is how the internet makes it much easier for me to NOT engage with people who do not think the way I think. For example, I have read nothing but "WOO HOO REPEAL PROP 8!" stuff because that's how my friends are. And because I don't go anywhere else online because I find wrong headed crackpotdom not how I want to spend my online time.

FB becomes one of the only places where I might encounter people with ideas hugely divergent from my own because I don't go to many places online that aren't here, DW, LJ, FB or NYT. But then, on facebook, people say something stupid or start to preach at me and I unfriend them.

I wonder if the internet will make it easier to surround yourself with likeminded folks, thus polarizing us even more?

Ok. going to bed now. I finished all twelve evaluation letters. WOOT WOOT, as my son would say.

Kat, I think it depends on where you hang out. I spend the majority of my time at Friendfeed.com and it's pretty diverse. Probably the most diverse community I've ever been part of online. I regularly run into people who don't agree with my beliefs and vice versa. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing, but it's definitely been a learning experience.

Congrats on getting the evals done!

I'm afraid of that, too, Kat.

I have a few conservatives I keep on FB because I've known them since we were kids and they have a few redeeming qualities. But it can be easy to self select communities where you feel safe and respected.

Not many people want to wade into the shit on their free time. I certainly respect those that do. Especially buffistas who may feel closer to the conservative side of the spectrum but still love my Commie Socialist ass.

I wonder if the internet will make it easier to surround yourself with likeminded folks, thus polarizing us even more?

I think it has contributed to the echo chamber effect, but it started before the internet was as widespread as it is now.

Between the decision of 2000 and 9/11, I saw a massive shift and retreat to bunkers on all sides.

I kind of want there to stop being sides. I want to be able to live and let live. But I can't forget seeing my then community condemning people like me as traitors or worse in the weeks following the WTC falling while I sat there, quietly, wondering if anyone knew they were talking about one of their own. I can't forget, and part of me can't forgive. So.

But it can be easy to self select communities where you feel safe and respected.

Seriously! A mom from the g-tube support group I'm part of friended me on FB and she is deeply conservative. She posts shit with links refuting global warming and I just CAN'T go there. Yet I do respect what she does for her daughter, even when I think she's wrongheaded crackpot material.

Not many people want to wade into the shit on their free time.

I certainly don't. And I get tired of @@ and fighting so I just avoid those places.

Plei, I'm so groggy and tired from writing about students that I think I was unclear. I was thinking of how it applies to me and how I've bunkered myself so that sometimes I lose sight that other people actually think shit that is incomprehensible. And sometimes those people vote and get a majority. And then I'm surprised. Like on Prop 8.

My company is talking about sending me to London for a week sometime next month. Will keep you posted as things line up.

Not in the middle of the month, I hope.

I would also be happy to go in with people on the Nubar.

Plei, the echo chamber is mighty. My friend on fb is a truly excellent person. I can't imagine anyone here meeting her in person and not loving her immediately. But her political opinions seem to come from the ether. I can't reconcile them with the intelligent (truly, truly) loving woman I know.

It must be extra frustrating for someone like you (I'm not misremembering, am I?) who once upon a time identified as conservative. Of course, I think both conservative and liberal outlived their useful lives, years ago.