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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

A newcomer to myspace writes:

Dear Sitaram:

I'm still trying to figure out what myspace is good for. So far, it seems to be a pornography / prostitution advertising vehicle, unless I've suddenly become attractive to scores of scantily-clad young women.

Here is my reply:

It is sad to see how the Internet as a whole, and myspace in particular, is misused for nonsense and porn, when it might be used for intellectual activity.

One myspace member, a PhD candidate, happened across my posts and e-mailed me to exclaim "You are an intellectual! On myspace!"

Lately, I participate daily at http://www.progressiveislam.org, as a non-Muslim who desires to promote interfaith dialogue and work towards a more moderate and peaceful form of Islam.

Yet, if you visit http://progressiveislam.org at this very moment, you will see long, frivolous lists similar to a Johnny Carson or David Letterman monologue. One picture is worth a thousand words:

<blockquote>

You might be a Jewish-American-Muslim if.….

1. You say “oy” before “Alhamdolelah fi kulli shay”
2. You think freshly made gefilte fish with homemade horseradish is sunna for Iftar dinner
3. You know you are a notch above the South Asian Princesses since they wouldn’t know Prada from Miu Miu from Prada Sport and why, of course, Prada Sport is best.
4. You think you got away with something because it is easier to keep halal than kosher.
5. Other Muslims search the web for Rabbinic opinions to support their positions when you won’t agree with them.
6. You answer every question with, “Let me tell you a story...”.
7. The first thing Jews and Muslims alike want to know about you is your “position” on Isreal.
8. You are secretly relieved that, other than the Naqshbandis, Sufi guys don’t dress like Hasids.
9. You’d never be seen in one of those polyester Saudi schmatas.
10. You think of going to juma as going to shul and you aren't wrong.

</blockquote>

This is only one of numerous lists that have been posted there during the past several days by people who have some academic prominence.

I had no intention of commenting on these lists, but it serves to illustrate my point that the Internet is used for frivolity even at sites where one might expect much more serious writing. What is being posted there is initially amusing, but grows old quickly, and gives new visitors a poor impression regarding the mission statement of the site.

We get what we ask for, as a consumer public. Imagine a world where there were hundreds of PBS Educational channels, featuring long dialogues with people like William F. Buckley Jr., the Dalai Lama, Steven Hawking, Fareed Zakaria, and Condoleeza Rice, and only a few impoverished channels featuring The Simpsons, Judge Judy, and Reality Shows, supporting themselves with constant pleas for viewer donations and an occasional public service grant from the government.

I had a long argument with a journalist friend in Pakistan. She explained that she used to like Oprah Winfree, but now, friends have convinced her that Winfree does not address important issues, and that, perhaps there is some hidden agenda at work, to pull the wool over the American public’s eyes. I argued that Winfree is subject to her paying sponsors, and her sponsors are dependent upon public interest and demand. There is a great demand to hear stories about relatives who abuse minors. There is much less demand for educational or intellectual topics. Media content is driven, not by propaganda from organizations with hidden agenda. Media content is driven by public demand and tastes, or lack of taste.

You ask me about the homely nature of mirrors, and I answer that a mirror is merely a reflection of the beholder.

As Gandhi once said, "You must become yourself that very change which you wish to see in the world."

If there were long lines outside public libraries, similar to the lines outside Rock Star performances, with people arriving at Midnight for a chance to be first, then our world would be a very different place from what it is today.

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