Manners vs. Freedom of speech

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: tls () gate net (Terry Steinford)


Today's New York Times has an Editorial Notebook item discussing a
situation at Santa Rosa Junior College in California where a falling out
between two students that had dated has lead to a Federal lawsuit about
single-sex only bulletin boards and posted comments "in line with what one
finds on bathroom wall in bus terminals".  The item concludes:


"It was an article of faith that the information superhighway would
transform workaday life into a quasi-utopian, state-of-the art experience.
The information superhighway: say it three times, click your heels, and
you would have any movie you wanted on demand, be examined by your doctor
without leaving your bed of pain, find yourself on a planet that had
become a cozy little virtual neighborhood. The clue was in mixed metaphor:
You don't build a neighborhood on a superhighway, especially not the
infobahn.


"The promise of the virual neighborhood has proved far-fetched at best.
How could it be otherwise when the communicants are faceless and
voiceless, many writing under assumed names? Facelessness brings out the
beast in people. As exhibit A, consider that the first verb cyberspace
contributed to the language was "to flame," meaning to singe someone's
eyebrows with an obsure or derogatory message. Flaming has become the
on-line sport of choice; whole sectors of the Internet are given over to
the most putrid insults. A curse muttered on the street disappears into
the air. A flame echos on, to be read by millions.


"The information superhighway may yet rise to its lofty promise. But as of
now, its most pronounced accomplishment has been to chisel into stone
trash that would better have been left to disappear."


Any thoughts?