Two Digital Fallacies

Note

This page has been migrated from an earlier version of this site. Links and images may be broken.

The first is what I call the Long Tail Fallacy. It goes like this:

1. Look on the shelves of a big chain bookstore or music store. It’s mainly mainstream stuff. Boo.

2. Look at the variety at Amazon or iTunes. Hooray!

3. Isn’t it great how the Internet has liberated us from the tyranny of physical shelves and geography?

Did you see the switch? Here it is again. Watch closely.

1. Look at what was on mainstream network TV decades ago. Not much. Boo.

2. Look at all that variety on YouTube. Hooray!

3. Isn’t it great how the Internet has liberated us from the tyranny of mainstream media?

See how I did that? Or again, this time from Digitally Enabled Social Change by Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport (p91).

1. Look at offline rallies as reported by the New York Times. Only big and complex protest events. Boo.

2. Look on the Internet. Online petitions, campaigns to save TV shows, all kinds of actions. Hooray!

3. Isn’t it great how the Internet has unleashed a torrent of activism among the population?

I think of the second as the Christmas Fallacy:

1. Publishing used to be expensive.

2. Now it’s cheap.

3. We have an abundance of publishing!

Seems reasonable enough? What about this:

1. Christmas comes but once a year.

2. I wish it could be Christmas every day.

3. We’d have an abundance of Christmas!

We wouldn’t, of course. We’d have no Christmas at all.