Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Blogs v Science

An author wonders why science blogs, at least the popular ones, spend so little time discussing science:

Clearly I’ve been out of some loop for too long, but does everyone take for granted now that science sites are where graduate students, researchers, doctors and the “skeptical community” go not to interpret data or review experiments but to chip off one-liners, promote their books and jeer at smokers, fat people and churchgoers? And can anyone who still enjoys this class-inflected bloodsport tell me why it has to happen under the banner of science?

The same point can be made about political sites of course. Perhaps there's something in the medium itself that encourages the juvenile, or are we living in a superficial age?