American University professor, Matthew Nisbet, has brought a worthy discussion / project from his current Communication and Society class onto his blog, Framing Science. Basically, his class “spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter the nature of community, civic engagement, and social relationships.” Their coursework has resulted in several positions papers that elaborate the Cyberoptimist vs Cyperskeptics and Team Social Change vs Team Reinforcers perspectives, respectively.
I haven’t dug too deeply into the papers, but I am excited that the class debate has leaped from the classroom and onto the comments portion of the respective blog entries. For someone like myself, who is nearly four years out of college and eager to study how communities socialize around media and technology, this is some great reading. I only wish I had more time to participate.