Yes, networks can help people strengthen neighborhoods and communities. But they also encourage people to find ways out. Unhappy with your schools? Join the parents who have turned to home schooling … Any future information network will help unhappy people secede, at least mentally, from institutions they do not like, much as the interstate highway system allowed the affluent to flee the cities for the suburbs and exurbs. Prescribing mobility, whether automotive or electronic, as an antidote to society’s fragmentation is like recommending champagne as a hangover remedy.
Predictor: Tenner, Edward
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wilson Quarterly, Edward Tenner writes: ”Yes, networks can help people strengthen neighborhoods and communities. But they also encourage people to find ways out. Unhappy with your schools? Join the parents who have turned to home schooling. Teaching materials and mutual support are already available online, and home educators have been using electronic mail effectively to organize and lobby for their rights. Their children may learn all they need to, but the economist Albert O. Hirschman has pointed out that when the most quality-conscious users are free to leave a troubled system, whether railroads or schools, the system suffers further by losing its most vocal critics. Any future information network will help unhappy people secede, at least mentally, from institutions they do not like, much as the interstate highway system allowed the affluent to flee the cities for the suburbs and exurbs. Prescribing mobility, whether automotive or electronic, as an antidote to society’s fragmentation is like recommending champagne as a hangover remedy.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Wilson Quarterly
Title, headline, chapter name: Learning from the Net
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://weblinks2.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=dbs+1+ln+en%2Dus+sid+90970082%2D4C44%2D4E9B%2DBC3F%2DCA2177A4B175%40Sessionmgr2+4051&_uh=btn+N+idb+afhish+jdb+afhjnh+op+phrase+ss+ID++WLQ+CC1F&_us=bs+JN++%22Wilson++Quarterly%22++and++DT++19940601+ds+JN++%22Wilson++Quarterly%22++and++DT++19940601+dstb+KS+fcl+Aut+ri+KAAACB1D00237018+sm+KS+81AB&fn=1&rn=4
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty