Aleks Krotoski: online community – myth, menace and meaning

Our online world is frequently celebrated for its ability to make our offline world smaller. It is lauded for encouraging us to bump up against opposing view points. It even gives us the potential for regime change through the motivation of voters and protesters. Yet, the web can also be seen as a menace to society, enabling isolation and fostering extremism. In the first of the current season of Polis Media Dialogues Dr Aleks Krotoski, attempted to reconcile the two perspectives on the Net by looking at how our online interactions can transform our offline behaviour. This report on her talk by By Danielle Moran