Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I've said this before but it bears repeating: the problem is not what there is about you on the internet, the problem is in what people do with it. Case in point: there is utterly nothing wrong with making a video of you and some friends dancing on a rooftop. That's what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did. The resulting video is what the Chronicle, citing Lawrence Lessig, calls "'read/write culture,' in which everyday people felt empowered to generate their own creative product." And it's a wonderful example of that. But for one commentator, it was raw material for a lumpy-headed attempt to shame Ocasio-Cortez. Now is this an argument for never posting such content online in the first place? Of course not. It's an argument for asking, "how weird is it that there's some guy out there who thinks dancing is shameful? Why would anyonme take them seriously?"

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 09:38 a.m.

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