KonzeptioNerd

Aw, come on, let’s close down the internet already

ZDF Spezial had rather weird things to say about the internet a pro pos of the Winnenden massacre. First of all, the reporters appeared half surprised, half disappointed that the gunman had virtually no internet footprint: no hints, no threats, no weird social networking profiles. At least he appears to have played ego shooters every once in a while.With all respect towards the victims and the survivors - the way the ZDF talks about the internet in this context does not help. Steffen Seibert starts off saying that kids turn to the internet and especially chats in order to talk about what happened. Then he introduces Twitter with a nice little definition of what the service has to offer. German teenagers on Twitter? Not too many, as far as I know. At any rate, there’s an expert showing the results of his search for #Winnenden with a few comments by what appear to be adult users. (As far as I remember, no tweets by BILD, though, although @bild_aktuelles literally spams Twitter with shortcuts to its own online coverage.) Not quite sure what showing Twitter adds to the discussion - apart from fishing for media credibility.

Then there’s a few comments on the unfortunate absence of compromising web postings from the gunman. Then a reminder that there’s an online fan cult around the Columbine killers. Finally, Seibert appealed to parents to be patient (and unalarmed) when their kids turn to the internet and their online peers in order to talk about their experience and grief, not to their parents. For the kids, Seibert says, the internet may also be a place of solace and comfort, and other things adults may not understand.

Right. If they keep positioning the internet as that weird other space where kids do strange and not necessarily positive things (compromising community profiles!!!), it’s small surprise that the ZDF finds it hard to make a case for spending more public money on their internet activites.

One Response to “Aw, come on, let’s close down the internet already”

1. gMulder Says:
   

   Oh yeah, and ban Monopoly, Online-Trading while you’re at it. Causes no end of grief for the economoy, I hear: http://bit.ly/ftM3.

   April 1st, 2009 at 6:35 pm

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