Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Blogging as Therapy

I attended a seminar over the summer on Free Speech, the Internet and the Challenge of Advancing Technology at a law school conference. One of the speakers mentioned a symposium he had attended in Europe to explore violence and the internet; he indicated that the European members of this conference felt there was a need for more governmental control over speech on the internet due to the potential for violent behavior as a result of hate speech.

When it came time for questions, I asked what research this conference had access to that showed a correlation between violence and free speech on the internet. The speaker stated that no such correlation had been proven to exist as of yet, but the European panel saw the potential for violence as a concern. What about the potential for the internet to do good? Did these so-called researchers consider that there was also a potential for the internet to inhibit violence?

Perhaps these European academics should come sit in my therapy office for a week and talk to the people I have seen who use the internet as a way to stop themselves from becoming violent. Maybe they would be interested to know about the nine year old boy who made plans to kill his principal but decided that computers were a lot more interesting. Or what about the 50-year-old potential mass murderer I saw who used a journal and the internet to sublimate his feelings of aggression into words and found others in chat rooms to comfort him? It is amazing to me that academics who proclaim to use science or research to back their ideas make their suggestions for policy changes on politically correct hunches rather than actual hard core data.

To see more on the mistakes academics make about human behavior, see my article at Tech Central Station entitled, "Overhumanizing the Enemy."

4 Comments:

Blogger Francis W. Porretto said...

This is, indeed, a refreshing take.

Life in America can be very stressful, and a big part of the stress comes from being around other people as much as we are. The mere presence of others imposes all sorts of demands and constraints -- mostly implicit, but still quite potent. The Internet offers its users a way to have most of the benefits of human companionship while omitting those stress inducers. As such, I've found it to be a relaxing retreat, and I'm not surprised that others might feel the same.

Of course, the forces to whom the freewheeling interplay of free minds is anathema won't cease to color the Internet as a place of pure hazard: "We must impose some sort of gatekeeping on this wilderness! For the children!" But what else is new?

6:09 AM, October 08, 2005  
Blogger Joe Friday said...

Dr. Helen:

I agree that blogging is good therapy.
I would appreciate your taking a look at my blog and give me your take. Obviously injustice is my theme, but I'd like to hear what else you might see.

11:20 PM, October 14, 2005  
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