The tests that periodically appear on various list environments always
strike me as an interesting moment in the culture creation happening on the
"Net". I used to always respond to questions asked directly to the asker's
e-mail address, rather than posting it for all to read.  It just seemed
inappropriate to engage the group in a matter of transfering simple
information.  But if such lists are to be the public forums they were designed
to be, then such individualization is  misguided. The new users, tentative in
their actions, and not quite convinced of the reality of the situation, are not
to be faulted for acting on that lack of faith. That this act of creation is
happening so self-consciously, and with such  mind numbing speed, it's a wonder
we're not all nodding and bowing at every turn.
    It may be a dumb assumption (not an unfamiliar act for me) that someone out
there is looking at the cultural adjustments happening in our language and
other communications, being wrought by this technology. While it may be dreary
in the extreme to review all the archived material (It sounds like museum-l
alone fills a small nation sized storage space with it's archived messages.) I
can't imagine no-one has looked through at least some of it with a
sociologist's eye. Anyone playing around with this stuff? Any thoughts on the
matter?
Aaron Goldblatt
Please Touch Museum
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