Internet Pathology in the Schools

Regular readers know that I like to collect (if not analyze and comment on) reports of things going so bad in the social world of cyberspace that they may best be described as pathological. I suspect that one of the earliest of those reports involved a (pre-Internet) case of cyber-rape in the pioneering LambdaMOO chat space, which I had discussed in my previous blog and which Julian Dibbell documented in an extended report for The Village Voice entitled "A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit. Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozen Turned a Database into a Society" (subsequently anthologized in Mark Stefik's Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors). Last year was rather a banner year for such reports:

• In March there was the story about the death threats that Kathy Sierra received on her own blog. One immediate consequence was that Sierra canceled public appearances in which she praised the power of the blogosphere. A more interesting consequence, however, was the revelation of how fumbling the blogosphere became when questions of its own governance were suddenly thrust before it.
• In April there was the complete trashing of a home in Tacoma, Washington, in response to a fake ad placed on Craigslist.
• In May the blogosphere was the site of an unfounded rumor about Apple that briefly (fortunately) played havoc with its stock price.

Any Internet evangelists who regard these as minor aberrations from which the Internet would settle back into a less dangerous normative behavior would do well to read the extended article by Gabriel Sherman, published on March 30 and available on the Web site for New York Magazine. (I emphasize that adjective "extended" and hope to God that the article is not too long for the attention space of the average Internet evangelist!) The story begins with students at a prestigious independent school in New York City using Facebook pages to attack a teacher, but it pursues consequences in too many directions to be simply enumerated on this post. The bottom line is that Internet pathology is still with us, that the currency of social norms is on a (continuing) decline, and that one of the few points of alignment between cyberspace and the "real world" is in the undermining of normative behavior by new ways of exercising domination.

I find it somewhat ironic that last night I happened to watch my VTR recording of the Sundance Channel broadcast of Blog Wars, a documentary that focused on the impact on the blogosphere in Ned Lamont's defeat of Joe Lieberman when the former contested the latter in the Democratic primary for Lieberman's seat in the Senate. The basic message was that the blogosphere was where citizens could make a difference in the political process. The message was delivered without ever invoking that epithet of "citizen journalism," concentrating instead on having the ability to write in a space where anyone can read the resulting text. We were even treated to one journalist celebrating the power of writing without editing without quibbling over whether such writing is as "legitimate" as traditional journalism and blithely ignoring that caveat lector has become the primary rule for reading any text on the Internet. Ultimately, the documentary represents the bloggers (from both left and right) as being as articulate as they are sincere in their convictions; and, when one of those bloggers has to confront the egregious impact of one of her posts, the episode rolls off her back and she blithely moves on to her next post (with encouragement from her fellow bloggers).

The world of Blog Wars, like the world depicted in Sherman's article, is a world that lacks intervention in the interest of considering consequences before acting. This may well be normative for what I have called "the world the Internet has made;" but we should all find the prospect of such a norm to be more than a little chilling. It is a world of entropic sociopathy; and, as is the case with any entropic property, the level can only increase. One of the bloggers interviewed in Blog Wars compared the blogosphere to Deadwood, which is fine if you like the pioneering spirit but not so fine when you consider the number of bodies that filled the Deadwood cemetery (or fed Wu's pigs, as the case may be).

Financial Consequences are Newsworthy!

Now that the blogosphere has its Blooker Prize (for new books whose material originated in a blog) one wonders if a blog version of the Pulitzer will be coming along shortly. If so, then I am already there with a nomination: Tom Krazit, for appreciating the significance of using the word "consequences" in the lead paragraph for a post to News Blog at CNET News.com. Indeed, the consequences of Internet speed appear to be the order of the day over a News Blog.

First we had Krazit reporting on the consequences of an unfounded rumor about Apple diffusing through the blogosphere. Here is the full account of what happened:

Engadget posted a story Wednesday morning at 11:49am ET claiming that Apple was about to announce another delay of Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, as well as a delay for the iPhone, perhaps the most hyped gadget of all time.

"This one doesn't bode well for Mac fans and the iPhone-hopeful: we have it on authority that as of today, the iPhone launch is being pushed back from June to... October (!), and Leopard is again seeing a delay, this time being pushed all the way back to January," Engadget said. Panic ensued. Apple's stock immediately plunged 2.2 percent as investors contemplated another product delay at Apple, following the first Leopard delay as well as the Apple TV delay in February.

But around 20 minutes after the original post, Engadget started to update its story. First, the site said it had heard back from Apple PR that there was no delay. Then the full story started to emerge.

Apparently an internal memo was sent to several Apple employees--and forwarded to Engadget--around 9am CT today saying that Apple issued a press release with the news that the iPhone was now scheduled for October, and Leopard was delayed until January. About an hour and a half after that e-mail went out, a second e-mail was sent--this time officially from Apple--saying the first e-mail was a fake, and that the delivery schedule for the iPhone and Leopard had not changed. Engadget then updated its headline as "False alarm: iPhone delayed until October, Leopard delayed again until January.

Krazit's article also included the graphs of Apple stock activity over this period of time, and they make for a pretty vivid illustration. His following paragraph then addressed repercussions with the sort of understatement I am more used to encountering in the British press:

Commenters on Engadget and Apple investor boards were not amused. Many of those comments are not printable in this space, but it's safe to say that there's some very unhappy Apple shareholders out there today. Apple's stock recovered as the full story emerged, but was still down slightly in afternoon trading.

However, as it was introduced, this is really a story about consequences, particularly the consequences of a world that now moves at Internet speed. Ellen Goodman wrote about this sort of thing in news reporting last month in her piece entitled, "The Benefits of Slow Journalism;" but I would guess that she does not share very many readers with CNET.

Meanwhile, shortly after Krazit's article appeared, News Blog ran a piece by Harry Fuller that followed up on the fake Craigslist ad that led to a house in Tacoma being rather thoroughly consumed by people to took the ad text "take everything" at face value. The news is that a suspect investigated for placing the ad has now been charged:

Police have accused Nichole M. Blackwell, 28, of placing the ad in Craigslist. The specific charges are second-degree burglary, first-degree malicious mischief and first-degree criminal impersonation. Blackwell is due in court May 25.

At the time of the crime, the woman who owned the house said her sister was not smart enough to think up this affair. The sister of the owner had stopped living in the house just before the trashing invitation. Blackwell is the homeowner's niece. All in the family.

As I wrote last month, this is again a story about the consequences of Internet speed.

So we have been treated to two stories on News Blog delivered in relatively rapid succession (at least in the "good old days" of print journalism). Both are stories about almost instantaneous reactions to bogus information leading to unpleasant consequences. Where addiction is concerned, they say that admitting the problem is the first step to getting over it. The Internet being what it is, however, I suspect that it is going to take a lot more than admission to deal with prevailing behavior in cyberspace!