“people who possess both a broadband connection and a surfeit of free time”
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008I wonder if by his patronizing insinuation that Internet conversation is merely the negligible product of a surfeit of free time, The Guardian’s Tim Dowling is referring to *all* those who participate in online conversations, or only to those Internet users who are offended by expressions of anti-Bush sentiment? If the former, he’s managing to demonstrate disdain for hundreds of millions of those who daily post comments on online newspapers and magazines, use social-networks, who blog, who Twitter, who contribute to mailing lists, and perhaps those who upload images to photo-sharing sites and who author and promote Free software, not to mention the rest.
Just when you thought professional journalists had conquered their “old media” view of the Internet and its users, and had accepted the reality of a billion souls chattering away 24/7 on the network — just as they often do in their homes, at social venues and in public spaces when they find themselves with a “surfeit of free time”.