Internet connects and isolates… Who you are and where you are still matters (a lot).

Hello “Eclatdesign” (do not know your real name). I believe your comment (that I am reporting below) to my post about internet and old people living in the Apennine Mountains deserve a new section.

“There are not only old people living in little towns such as San Marcello, Maresca or maybe... Gavinana. Anyway I know old people that look for cooking recipes on the web, or simply surf the net to read the news or whatever they are looking for.... Internet is useful, it's a big window on the world and what happens there. It doesn't matter where the access point is located or how old is the surfer.... They (even the "olds") are able to use PC! and, finally, internet won't EVER replace direct experience but it is, actually, a quite good compromise...”

Having acknowledged that also young people live in small town such San Marcello, Maresca, Gavinana — although I strongly believe that demographic indexes describe a progressive ageing of the population — and that probably there are both females and males, the public policy in question was directed precisely toward such a limited part of the universe: old people living in the Apennine Mountains. That is what I understood during the TV roundtable. I could have used ‘elder’, I agree with that; for sure I would not employ the quotation mark: age difference — as any difference: social, cultural, political, ethnical, gender, religious etc. — is not a “problem” to bracket out to me, otherwise I should immediately quit my work as professor of sociology.

You stated that elder people, in general, can definitely use the web. I do not have empirical data to support neither your opinion (do you?) nor mine; nevertheless, my experience tells me that, still in general, they cannot (especially in Italy). Then, the point of the post is precisely if old people in the Apennine Mountains can navigate in the internet, which is sure a useful resource for anyone. My question is: who implemented such a policy (with public money I suppose, that is: mine, yours, etc., drawn from the heaviest taxation on labour in Europe), thought about a kind of digital literacy program? Once the digital highway is constructed, do they have the car (PC) and do they know how to drive it? Is there any money left (kind of important point in a time of economical crisis, isn’t it?) in such a policy plan to train older people?

Internet is not “replacing” reality, however it sure has influences on how people experience everyday life that deserve to be studied. Just think about a person who is walking, trying to relax a bit, in the street of Florence, Rome (or Gavinana, Maresca etc.; it does not make a difference: wrong, it does!) with his/her IPhone, constantly “connected” and receiving calls, sms, emails, fakebook etc. Is such instrument influencing the stroll? I believe so; and the point is not whether this is “good” or “bad”, but “how”: we need to interpret reality, virtual reality and the web of meanings and relations spun around the two. And, at the same time, it is opportune to put aside the debate “apocalyptic of integrated intellectuals” (Umberto Eco, Apocalypse Postponed, 1964/1994), towards mass culture and communication, but this is another story.

Internet can be a “big” as well as a “narrow” window open (closed) upon the social world; it depends — as for any communication instrument — on the usage. If, for instance, a person surfs the web not looking for “cooking recipes”, but mainly to watch porn movies (many people do), it sure becomes a huge window, which opens a limitless horizon limited to porn: postmodern pornoscapes, I would name them. Moreover, how is such a practice influencing the socialization process of a 13 years old boy or girl? How is this shaping the development of sentiments, passion, sex, and the relation with otherness in general? Furthermore, the web can connect as well as isolate people. I can think, using some sociological imagination, to social networks and at the same time to a-social networks. I can see web connections as means to promote sane and respectful encounters with otherness, to “love thy neighbor”. However, I can see the web also as an inhibiting apparatus promoting a vicious circle instead of a virtuous one. I can interpret being on line as an active experience or as a passive one, leading to self-absorption, egotism, or (see above) to an “onanistic” attitude toward otherness and reality.

Finally, it does matter a lot where “the access point is located or how old is the surfer”. It makes a huge difference being connected to the web in Sub-Saharan Africa or in Beverly Hills. And it does matter a lot if you are 13 or 80 years hold. This, of course, if: 1) we do agree that reality still counts — apparently (apparently) we do “internet won't EVER replace direct experience”, but I am not sure at all; 2) the “good compromise” you are mentioning is not just your or mine com-promise, dealing with your or mine reality, but if it is a “promise”, a oaths/vow for many people around the world. That is: to transcend oneself to really meet Otherness…

Multiculturalism is a ‘total failure’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking to the conservative youth organization of her Christian Democratic Union at an event called the "Deutschland Assembly", said that multiculturalism in Germany had been a total failure: “the notion that we would become 'multiculti' that we would live next to one another and be happy about one another, failed”. Polls indicate that a growing number of Germans believe that too many of the country's foreigners live in what are often referred to as "parallel communities" with little or no connection with German culture. Merkel declares “We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here” and adds: “Subsidizing immigrants isn’t sufficient; Germany has the right to “make demands” of them such as mastering the language of Goethe and abandoning practices such as forced marriage”.

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (University of Connecticut) is a social science data archive specialized in opinion surveys. The majority of surveys regard United States, but you can find data from over 50 nations. This is one more useful link to find data for your research papers (see older posts). Useful… Every conceptual tool has limits. Therefore, it is necessary to interpret data both from a theoretical and methodological point of view. Pierre Bourdieu’s famous essay “Public Opinion does not exist” tells us about "some" of those limits and the “rethorical” use of public opinion surveys. According to the scholar ‘public opinion’ is like a mirage and politician many times invokes it in order to implement already decided policies. In this sense, polling becomes a mean and a field for political struggle: “The politician who yesterday said ‘God is on our side’ today says ‘public opinion’ is on our side’” (Bordieu 1979, 125). The scholar also criticizes the fundamental assumptions of opinion polls: everyone has an opinion; all opinions have the same value; there is a consensus about problems.

Bourdieu, P. (1979). Public Opinion Does Not Exist, in A. Mattelart and S. Siegelaub (eds.) Communication and Class Struggle, New York: International General.

Internet Communication and Old People: Canto al Balì (TVL)

I was invited to a television debate, TVL - Canto al Balì, about communication, internet etc. Pistoia Province (Tuscany) seems to be one of the best equipped in Italy. Now that internet highways can reach even little towns in the Appennini Mountains, how old people living there will take benefit from such a revolution? Are they able to use PC? Internet? What is the philosophy of such a social-communicative policy? Secondly, can a internet highway substitute the real street, the real participation to civic life?

Young Americans in Florence

A journalist of Corriere della Sera reconstructed the business of organized pubs tour in Florence. The main point of the article, if I got it right, was not alcohol consumption, but the systematic business developed around American students in Florence (around 8.000 students per year is a big business). The article raised a huge debate in town. Directors of American colleges reacted to such a depiction of American students. Local authorities said they will monitor the situation. Believe me, the debate is huge. I will not enter into this debate. I will, in the future, try to write a book about the cultural experience of American Youngsters Abroad. In the meantime, I would like to share with you some passages upon youth, written by giants. I believe Newton was right: “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”. And before him John of Salisbury, in Metalogicon, wrote: “Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size”. The astounding thing is that commentators (journalists or whoever has the power to speak in the public opinion), never stand on the shoulders of giants. Do they think “I am a Giant”? Is it a matter of narcissism? Or — a simple thought is starting to run in my head — is it just because they are not aware, they did not read the giants? Who knows…

Jung, C.G. (1933) The stages of life, in Modern Man in Search of a Soul. New York: Harvest.

“The biblical fall of man presents the dawn of consciousness as a curse. And as a matter of fact it is in this light that we first look upon every problem that forces us to greater consciousness and separates us even further from the paradise of unconscious childhood. Every one of us gladly turns away from his problems; if possible they must not be mentioned, or better still, their existence is denied. We wish to make our lives simple, certain and smooth — and for that reason problems are tabu. We choose to have certainties and no doubts — results and no experiments — without even seeing that certainties can arise only through doubt, and results through experiment. The artful denial of a problem will not produce conviction; on the contrary, a wider and higher consciousness is called for to give us the certainty and clarity we need” (96-97).

“Whoever protects himself against what is new and strange and thereby regresses to the past, falls into the same neurotic condition as the man who identifies himself with the new and runs away from the past” (102).

“Whoever carries over into the afternoon the law of the morning must pay for so doing with damage to his soul just as surely as growing youth who tries to salvage his childish egoism must pay for this mistake with social failure” (109).

Joseph Conrad (1917) The Shadow Line: A Confession. New York: Doubleday (incipit, first 6 lines of the book).

“Only the young have such moments. I don’t mean the very young. No. The very young have, properly speaking, have no moments. It is the privilege of early youth to live in advance of its days in all the beautiful continuity of hope which knows no pauses and no introspection. One closes behind the little gate of mere boyishness — and enters an enchanted garden. Its very shades glow with promise. Every turn of the path has its seduction. And it isn’t because it is an undiscovered country. One knows well enough that all mankind had streamed that way. It is the charm of universal experience from which one expects an uncommon or personal sensation — a bit of one’s own. One goes on recognizing the landmarks of the predecessors, excited, amused, taking the hard luck and the good luck together — the kicks and the halfpence, as the saying is — the picturesque common lot that holds so many possibilities for the deserving or perhaps for the lucky. Yes. One goes on. And the time, too, goes on — till one perceives ahead a shadow-line warning one that the region of early youth, too, must be left behind".

If you want to understand better (everything needs to be interpreted, and it takes time!), you shall read the books. These are just cut flowers:“Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants” (John W. Gardner).

Giovani e Politica

Social & Economic Development, Spring 2010

Great Class!

The Hero of Our Time!

What gives meaning to the work of a professor are students. Each year a new class starts and each student that I meet enriches my life. It’s always a wonderful journey of knowledge. And some students surprise me for their thoughtful and visionary capacity to understand the social world. Let’s thank Chris for this precious gift to the world of knowledge: he discovered The Hero of Our Time! Sympathy, humor, irony and smiles are vital features for teaching and learning!