Back

@lcamtuf early in the social media age when Facebook was still a college student only thing, I attended meetups of people who ran or promoted hybrid communities.

I met one guy who was doing social research into how online interaction affected real communities, consensus building, and the enactment of local ordinances within a city. All of us were there because we thought everyone communicating with everyone online was the way to the enlightened future of cooperation and cohesion.

He looked around the room and said, "I'm doing a study on that right now. That just causes everyone to simplify their positions into one of two groups that are more extreme instead of less."

Nobody had anything to say back to that. A few people blinked in disbelief. There were a few moments of awkward silence and then the evening carried on.

I wish I asked that guy for his card and kept in touch with him. He was onto the problem of our age years before I ever heard it anywhere else.