Ben is one of the smartest people I know and he's exactly right. We've let online media (blogs, tweets, etc) go from trying to make each other smarter to being about entertainment. Beating other people up, etc. We get the media we deserve, don't we? It's one reason I like FriendFeed so much. So far it's been more about getting smarter and less about showmanship. - Robert Scoble
@Robert Scoble why do you say FF is more about making people smarter? - Robert
I've never thought of using the Internet to make myself smarter. It's always been a tool for just finding out what people think. In many ways, FF and other social networking sites just show how lonely people are - and these sites are about finding connections. The "nasty" bloggers and blog posts show that sometimes these connections are not very friendly or nice because we do not always have nice feelings about people. After all, flaming in newsgroups has been around for decades ... and still happens .. Maybe the flaming in blogs is just an expansion of this same anti-social behavior. - LPH
Robert: I certainly am learning a ton from people on FF and seeing a ton of new stuff that I wouldn't get anywhere else. Also, the people who are talking here are among the smart set of people. I don't see a lot of stupid comments here, and the few that I have seen earn a quick block. - Robert Scoble
LPH: You really need to learn to use Wikipedia. Then you'll get smarter about a whole range of topics. I used it to research Congresspeople before my interviews and it's always been really great source of information for me. I couldn't imagine not having that anymore and it's sad that every school kid doesn't have access to that. - Robert Scoble
Robert: Wikipedia is the first thing my students go go for their projects (copy/paste). I'm a fan of Wikipedia only to the point of accepting it as a secondary source - and a starting point. But Wikipedia is only one site and certainly not the Internet. If I want information then I go to the online libraries (UoP, Questia, etc). If I want relaxation then I go to TechMeme, Mixx, and other aggregators. FF is becoming more interesting, though. - LPH
Wikipedia is my most used reference site after Google. - Sean McBride
The quality references in Wikipedia can vary wildly depending on the editors. - Steve Lynch via Alert Thingy
