A while back I posted about a new social network called Bookish. You can read that post here. From what I can see, it seems to be a more professional, if not more upscale, version of goodreads. I hate to sound elitist, but I find goodreads questionable when it comes to actual social networking. And now that Amazon has taken them over, I don’t expect to see any grand upgrades soon. There are many things I love about Amazon, so don’t get me wrong. But customer service and maintaining a civil atmosphere are not among them. In other words, Bookish looks like a nicer place to hang out, and where civil discussion takes place.
But I could be wrong about that. It’s still too soon to tell. What I do like is the way the web site is set up, and I like the reading suggestions they make. There seems to be a selection of everything, from children’s to books similar to Fifty Shades of Grey. As I said, I guess only time will tell. And if what I’ve been seeing lately with regard to changes in attitude all over the Interwebs as far as civility goes continues to move forward, we’re a headed toward a more professional, enlightened Internet of the future where those who thought they could get away with anything will no longer be permitted to do so without having to deal with legal consequences. I think that’s fair, and I don’t think that we should behave differently online than we do in our daily lives out in public.
I once had some lunatic I’d never heard of before attack me with a blog post. Evidently, she didn’t like something I’d written on this blog…it wasn’t harmful at all: she just didn’t agree with it. She called me stupid, she made references to my writing, and even went so far as to question my identity as a gay man. If you come up to me on the street and attack me like that, with slurs like that and a tone like that, I’m going to have you arrested and I’m going to press charges against you. I’m not going to scream back and lower myself to your level. If you attack me on the Internet I don’t have much recourse as it stands now. None of us do when you think about it, not even lawmakers are safe anymore.
In any event, the circus sideshow days of the Internet might be coming to an end and social media like Bookish might be one of places where we can go for information (which is what the Internet was intended to be) and civil discussion. I don’t think the Interent will ever be completely without criminal behavior, but I do think there will be places where we can go where that same brand of criminal behvior is not welcome.
From my inbox:
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