Review: The Misinformation Highway: what's wrong with the Internet these days
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 24, 2013
In its infancy, the Internet was a wonderful thing. In many ways it still is. However at some point in the last 10 years, I started to notice some weird things going on in public forums on the Internet. The online versions of magazines and newspapers were opening up areas after their articles allowing Internet users to comment on the articles. The comment sections were being taken over by people, who instead of commenting on the articles, would diverge off into a weird dialog or confrontation that had nothing (or very little) to do with the article. And the comments contained ad hominem attacks and the most obnoxious attacks against anyone disagreeing with the poster, including sexual putdowns and ill wishes for their opponents to become victims of violence. Anyone actually making a to-the-point comment was ignored. I first noticed it on C*** but it soon spread to newspapers and other online web sites including unfortunately the reviews of some books on A*****.*** itself (which is why I have resolved to never post a dissenting review ever again). Some of the more august publications have stopped allowing Internet comments on the majority of their articles. This article examines how these nasty people have taken to blogging for character assassinations and even besmirched Wikipedia by using its entries for character assassinations. I am on my feet applauding and yelling "Bravo! Bravo!" to Douglas Preston for throwing a bright light on those who lurk in the dark corners of the Web.