Information flows and extremism

Ben Adida writes

In a world of millions of blogs and instant access to all sorts of viewpoints, you’d think people would have more trouble remaining sheltered and confined to their skewed view of the world. Is the Internet really improving information flow on a general basis, or merely increasing flow between already like-minded folks, thereby creating even more extreme viewpoints?

A provocative question. Weblogs are increasing flow between already like-minded folks, but the increased flow doesn’t always create extremism. Better to say that that the increased flow creates increased effectiveness (networked customers get smarter, faster), which can take shape in a number of ways, good and bad.