Social etiquette dictates that when in mixed company, one should avoid discussing politics and religion. As someone who is quite active on various social portals, I can attest to the visceral emotions that are triggered when these topics are broached!
The federal government seeks to control and regulate the Internet, but the last thing this Congress should be doing is trying to stifle public debate online.
There are 101 websites out there for debate - this was a blatant last attempt to get someone to stand against Gordon Brown.
The Internet doesn't just enable cool avatars and the shorter form. It also allows the deeper form: cross-linked blog posts, extensive research, simultaneous screens and raw debate footage that anyone can scan online, at any time.
You can't have a nuanced debate on Twitter, it's just people shouting.
Sometimes a polemic tweeter is more important than a normal view.
The public discourse online is not done through the polite language of debate.
Twitter's a funny one. I mean, it's good in some respects, but I can't stand it in other respects. You know there are too many opinions, people get opinions mixed up, and people get being rude mixed up with 'that's my opinion.'
I post probably 5 to 10 times a day in my forum. I have a forum directly related to my blog where I will write my blog and people will disagree with me and call me an idiot so then I will say this is why I wrote that and blah, blah, blah. I spend a lot of time online.
I have sparred with commenters as a music writer (on The Rumpus, among other places, see e.g., my review about Taylor Swift), and that was plenty of training!
It feels like every day or two, people on Twitter and the Internet are outraged about something.
The 24/7 nature of online debate, on the web and across social media, has allowed for more vibrant discussion of the opinions we publish - and your own.
No one has debates on Twitter.
There is a line between scurrilous nonsense and serious discussion that laps over, especially in this day and age when you've got all this electronic media and these blogs and this kind of fanatical impulse to bring down the opposing candidate.
I mean, you go to the internet and you can see all these conversations and arguments that our fans have about our music and that's wonderful to know, that people would take the time to be that involved.
I've done some moderating in the past at CBSSports.com. Certainly not in the debate format.
Imagine the wars we would've avoided if prior generations had a website where they could debate tragedy and politics in terse sentences?
Godwin's law states that the longer any online debate goes on, the likelier it is that someone will play the Nazi card. It's the rhetorical equivalent of going nuclear and stupid at the same time.
I try to keep the topics trendy. If it's a rant, it's something I feel strongly about, and people will watch it because they either agree or disagree.
