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Ever since the ban on blogs was enforced, bloggers have been scratching their heads to find a justification. Everything from writing a post that terrorists might read which will eventually inspire them to more terror attacks to forming a MySpace-like community to provide financing to terror groups has been deliberated. Only a few weeks ago, the mention of blogs brought bewildered expressions in India and hardly registered a blip in the mainstream media circles (except IBN-CNN perhaps) and now we are the second coming of Osama. I have been waiting for a plausible justification to ban blogs that would register with the public at large.
Through Rediff, I chanced upon this article, Introverted geeks more likely to turn cyber criminals:
Introverted Information Technology students are more likely to indulge
in “deviant” computer activity, according to a new study. The result
might seem unsurprising, given the stereotypical image of computer
geeks as socially inadequate.
Ah-ha! Replace “introverted Information Technology students” with bloggers and I bet people would be not hard pressed to still make the connection. The fact that most bloggers are techies is often hammered in any MSM publication that talks about blogs. After all having a ‘real’ life and having a blog are inversely related or at least it is though to be. Of course, I am just extrapolating the blogs bit. But who knows, the way things are ‘analyzed’ these days, someone just might make the connection. Better us than them, right?
The article also adds that “but the study contradicts previous research that found computer misuse is more common among extroverts.” So effectively, we have no frikkin clue and chose to highlight this study because it fits in well with our preconceived notions of geeks being potential criminals that will soon hack your personal identity.
My concern with the media highlighting such techno-phobic studies is that we are looking at the issue from a negative side only while completely negating the good that those geeks have brought to our lives. Introverted people are almost as likely to be criminals as they are to be geniuses. Just because they happen to associated with technology doesn’t make them potential criminals. The criminal-in-the-making has plenty of other socio-economic reasons as well. The authors themselves warn us against such overarching generalizations:
“While the media has portrayed those individuals who
are involved in criminal computer behaviour as being socially
underdeveloped and introverted, this study does not provide an
endorsement for such a sweeping generalisation“
But this statement is buried toward the end of the article and of course, highlighting it wouldn’t make it news-worthy.
Technorati Tags: geek, technology, criminal, research, media
by Patrix | on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 8:44 pm | 
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