Are blogs making people better informed, or allowing them to cocoon?
Well, both. Though Cass Sunstein famously worried about cocooning, research — and my own experience — suggests that people don’t just read things they agree with. For one thing, you have to read people you disagree with in order to call them “asshats,” which is a key aspect to the Internet experience . . . More seriously, I find that there are a lot of very interesting and well-informed people on the Internet, but that they tend to be drowned out by the obnoxious trolls. That breakdown in civility — or even in serious debate, since trolls never really debate, they just shout — is a more serious threat than “cocooning.” With cocooning you avoid people who disagree with you; with trolling you notice them but write them off as unserious. The latter, I think, is more dangerous to democracy. Q. In the past, you’ve offered your readers valuable advice about disaster preparedness, advocated for paying more attention to tracking asteroids, and otherwise drawn attention to issues tha
