Madam, Paul Gillespie’s claim (Opinion, July 31st) about new media having a significant role to play in facilitating dialogue between conflicting parties is well wide of the mark in terms of reality or substantive analysis, however fine an aspiration.
Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices Online estimates that there are less than 30,000 Facebook connections between Indians and Pakistanis. More tellingly, of more that three million Palestinian and Israeli Facebook users, less than 1.5 per cent of that total are “friends”. Less than 0.5 per cent of all Turkish and Greek Facebook users are “friends”.
In the United States, different Twitter trending topics are evident depending on race (the Gulf oil spill topic being a largely white user phenomenon), further evidence of division.
The reality is that, generally, people are most comfortable establishing online social relationships with people who are like them. It is a myth that the social web is bringing cultures and countries together in any meaningful way.
I would encourage anyone interested in understanding the true nature of global social media connectivity to read more about Ethan Zuckerman’s analysis at www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/. – Yours, etc,