I watched the inauguration on TV and online. While scrolling through both reverent and snarky comments in the form of frequent Facebook status updates, I couldn’t help thinking about the old cable comedy show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. In case you don’t remember, it debuted in 1988, when the civilian Internet 
was comprised chiefly of dial-up users chatting via CompuServe and Prodigy. The show featured an man and his robot friends delivering a running commentary on bad 1950s sci-fi movies.
At the time I thought the show’s central conceit was a little presumptuous. Why sit in silence listening to the patter of professional comics? Why not mock B-movies with one’s own friends?
Now I realize, the show’s obvious deficit just pointed the way to the future. The joint CNN-Facebook inauguration streaming transformed coverage from a passive viewing event to an interactive salon — but one in which no single voice is drowned out by the din of cross-talk, and one in which the opinions of one’s own contacts are given equal weight to those of insider pundits. (read more…)
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