Comments on: Alternet Community Illustrates Generational Conflict

By: Rita

Rita — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:03:19 +0000

I write a blog for boomer consumers called The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thrive-guide.typepad.com.

I’ve been writing it since January. It has surprised me when I read about boomer issues and boomer blogs, the tensions between the generations. It’s certainly out there. Mainstream media isn’t covering it, but it’s on the Internet.

Rita

By: Kevin Bondelli

Kevin Bondelli — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:43:05 +0000

I apologize if it seemed that I was implying the entire Alternet community shared these sentiments. My point was that even in a community such as Alternet there are those that write off an entire generation of voters, even though that generation bodes well for the progressive movement. The article itself is excellent and Alternet is one of the places that has had great articles on the youth vote and has shown itself to be an excellent resource of the young voter movement.

The problem is that though such comments are rare on Alternet, the sentiments they express are not as rare among the general public, even among Democrats and Progressives. Only by repeating the facts and statistics about the millennial generation will the idea stick.

I appreciate your comments and that they allow me to clarify what I meant.

By: Joshua H

Joshua H — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:02:25 +0000

It’s even worse.

Many of our stories get hundreds of comments, but this one has 21. Three are by Mike Connery and Kevin Bondelli. The rmeaining 18 were generated by just 10 users.

So the conclusions in this post are based on a selective sub-sample (comments chosen) of a small self-selected sub-sample (10 people who chose to weigh in) of a minuscule sample (quarter of one percent) of the AlterNet community.

By: Joshua H

Joshua H — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:38:55 +0000

I wonder when people will get bored of this type of analysis. It is perfectly meaningless.

Something like one quarter of one percent of AlterNet readers participate in the comments, and I’m confident that some of them would be hostile towards puppies and butter-pecan ice cream as well. Why? Because part of the fun of online comments is simply to be hostile towards … whatever. IMHO, that and that alone is what those comments “illustrate.”

One can make any point in the world by cherrypicking the spew of anonymous commenters on websites, and therefore there is no valid point to made at all.