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This is what typically takes place every day within the blogsphere. Many of the issues discussed in this medium are very personal and non-earth shaking in nature (advice on raising cats, bad day at work, latest argument with boyfriend, etc.). However, there are many pressing issues that are mentioned everyday that demand more than just our “2 cents” if we are to offer solid solutions to global problems.
From the early days of newsgroups to the now hot medium of blogs, I have not been a stranger when it comes to online debate and discussion. Some of the hottest debates that I have seen/been a part of have mainly dealt with issues centered around the “concern” for the poor and the never-ending struggle for people of color in our society.
Fact after fact, figure after figure, stat after stat is hurled from one end of cyberspace to another as each side argues their perspective on the issue. If “the other side” makes a statement that blows your perspective out of the water, then the whole thing becomes a race to google for yet another point that will bring some “damage” to the other side in this “intellectual” discussion. Like most heated discussions, eventually the original issue gets lost leaving us only with the option to move on to the next issue. Meanwhile, the real people involved in the issue of discussion are pretty much left to themselves to come up with their own solutions while we chatter away in cyberspace.
To many of us, the name Kristine Estrella Tiongson may not ring a bell. However, this was a young 20 year old who over this past weekend was shot while she and her fiancé were waiting in line at a Church’s Chicken in Los Angeles. She was hit by a bullet 4 blocks away by yet another unknown person who more than likely was not aiming at her. Just last year alone, there have been close to 2000 senseless murders that have taken place in just five major US cities. Her death just adds to the number of murders that have already taken place this year on the streets of America.
Despite this high number (even one is a high number), many of those who are anti-America (claiming to be just anti-war) in cyberspace will hide themselves from this everyday fact by shrouding themselves with figures and photos of “crimes” committed by some US troops abroad. They will also use things like web counters that show either how many civilian lives have been lost in this current war against terrorism, or how much money is being spent to fund the war. Yet on these same websites, you will be very hard-pressed to find any theatrical presentations of lives lost in the streets of inner-cites throughout America. Where are the counters that show those stats?
In cyberspace and beyond, the death of the Innocent have gone from being an instance in which we all are given pause, to numbers we can add to our debate cache for the next time we encounter a hot debate online. Deaths that have taken place as a result of the current war in the middle east currently have more mileage than a story that involves a young black boy being shot while returning home from school. So the next time network news, or people like Garry Trudeau (creator of the cartoon strip “Doonesbury”), want to list out the names of those that have been killed, I have an even longer list of people that have been killed right in their own backyard that they are more than welcome to use.
The truth is, while we are merely “commenting” on issue after issue online, many of us are doing very little to solve these problems beyond our keyboards. It is one thing to talk about fatherless homes, it is another to take the time out of YOUR day to spend time with the children of these homes. It is one thing to talk about how America treats its own poor, but it is another thing to do all that you can to eliminate poverty in YOUR own backyard. The same goes for elderly care, the uninsured, etc. The occasional $20 contribution via paypal for most of us is not enough.
Fixing the ills of society is not always fun or easy as going to some benefit concert. Kids need role models, the poor need food and work, the elderly need transportation and care. Simply making these issues into never-ending online partisan debates does nothing. At best, it becomes nothing more than another spirited debate that goes away with the next post.
Online debate can be a good thing, but it can also become very destructive if we do not develop real and workable solutions to the issues we claim to give voice.
I think that if the blogsphere is to have longevity, then we who are its members need to turn this virtual environment into an on ramp to true activism that involves more than just leaving a comment.
I have a hard time reading your blog now. The format is hard to read.
Your comments on this one are good.
QUOTE: “I think that if the blogsphere is to have longevity, then we who are its members need to turn this virtual environment into an on ramp to true activism that involves more than just leaving a comment.”
But leaving a comment on a website assuages the conscience of someone either too lazy, or too caught up in whether to buy the Prada shoes or the Tommy shirt for the party this weekend.
We have turned into a nation of self-centered,arrogant elitists or self-centered sloths. I can’t say that I am any better. Here I am assuaging my own conscience.