CarrollBlog 1.12

Today it struck me that in certain ways, the internet is very much like high school. Because in all schools there are cool groups that every kid wants to be part of but very few can join because they're not 'cool' enough. The beautiful kids group or the athletes, the scholars, the beautiful AND athletic, the stoners or the dangerous crowd… But on the internet and in internet discussions, even geeks and idiots get to participate in these 'groups' whether the cool ones want them there or not. A total loser can chat or argue with the coolest kid in 'school,' or at least respond directly to something cool one said, whereas in real life cool kid would pay no attention at all to the loser. Sting posts something on his Facebook page and anyone can respond, which means they must think either Sting (or someone close to him) reads that response. Twitter is the same. In glorious instances, particularly nice people like Neil Gaiman actually do respond to these postings which makes it really feel like you're in with the In crowd, no matter who you are.