Downsides of Open Culture

Findings - Jaron Lanier Is Rethinking the Open Nature of the Internet - NYTimes.com:

The first line of this article asks:

"When does the wisdom of crowds give way to the meanness of mobs?"

Phrases like:

"hive thinking" and this paragraph:
"He blames the Web’s tradition of “drive-by anonymity” for fostering vicious pack behavior on blogs, forums and social networks. He acknowledges the examples of generous collaboration, like Wikipedia, but argues that the mantras of “open culture” and “information wants to be free” have produced a destructive new social contract."

My thoughts:

I have been wanting to comment on this issue for a while, since in fact, I read about presenter s been harassed, bullied etc. by members of the audience using Twitter backchannels.

That worried me a lot.