posted by Nate

Last week, John Dvorak, columnist for PC Magazine, wrote an article for Fox News titled The Internet is Making Us Dumber, in which he lamented the decline of major newspapers, magazines, and TV news. He believes that by turning away from the traditional mass media outlets, we have lost an important perspective, which he describes as “generalized or common knowledge.” In other words, because we can select from a much wider range of outlets for information on the Internet, we’re no longer on the same page when we meet at the watercooler to discuss current events.

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I apologize in advance if you currently have Shirky overload, but I just read a transcript of a speech he gave at the Web 2.0 conference last week and I highly recommend you check it out. It’s short, and it’s good. Trust me.

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I came across two handy applications for tracking the popularity of terms mentioned in the blogosphere and social networks. These may come in handy for your research:

Facebook Lexicon — “Facebook Lexicon counts occurrences of words and phrases on Walls over time.” It can also compare two or more words in the same chart. You need a Facebook account to use it. Full explanation and link at the Facebook Blog. There’s some keyword kinks they need to work out, but it’s definitely helpful for any Facebook-related research.

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