Do you think that the internet has increased or stifled the belief in paranormal stuff?
By paranormal I don't mean established religions like Christianity, but rather things like telekinesis and psychics and magical healing rocks etc etc
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answers:
Jeffrey K say: The internet has spread all kinds of nonsense, including paranormal stuff. Anyone can post anything. A book or newspaper has editors and publishers. Nobody evaluates posts on the internet. Gullible people then believe the rubbish as if it is fact.
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Nine Lives say: I think, there are some useful webpages but the most is crap.
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Jon say: The big difference between the Internet and all earlier mass media is the effective lack of a gatekeeper.
When the mass media were print (books, periodicals, newspapers) and broadcast (radio and TV) content only got through if it was approved by an editor, and often others. Material only got into books if someone either thought it would sell or was willing to pay for publishing it anyway. TV editors received hundreds of scripts and proposals and only accepted the best few.
However the Internet allows anyone with a very basic level of income and technical knowledge to post stuff in front of millions of viewers. One side effect of this has been that all sorts of superstitious rubbish has got into the public domain, when it would in the past have fallen victim to an editor who would have thrown it out to keep up their title's reputation..
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Not say: Increased in a paranormal way.
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towwwdothello say: Unlike the purpose of the conversation, its use has changed with the internet. It is fascinating what can be harvested as data and used for an agenda.
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