The nice thing about the internet is that it allows us to connect to a broader context than the little world of our friends. Why would anyone want to retract that? Yes, the need to filter information becomes more and more paramount, but Google’s algorithms are useful precisely because they are not parochial. I’ll take “the cold mathematics of a Google search” over the limited scope of the people I know who are into time-killing on the internet. So I reject utterly the emotional logic of this: “Want to see what some anonymous schmuck thought about the Battlestar Galactica finale? Check out Google. Want to see what your friends had to say? Try Facebook Search.” If I care what my friends think, I’ll ask them; I won’t stalk them over it on the internet. And lots of people I don’t know who comment on culture are not “schmucks.” They are critics.
Great piece.
In this, Facebook is fighting a losing battle. Anyone internet-savvy (and I’d believe those numbers are growing exponentially) can almost instantly differentiate between the “schmucks” and experts, and likely defer to their “online family” of trusted sources infinitely sooner than to their peers.
For those who trade in the business of criticism, our quality filters are built in and therefore Google remains our greatest tool.
21, recent grad, web savvy Writes on: pop, journalism, youth, culture
From [something]intern to assistant[something]
