"The rich get rich and the poor get poorer" Nothing new there
   Naveed. Just a new catchphrase and some people wearing masks. I
   guess I've been online for a long time. It's old in age to me.
   I've been here since 1989 - that's 26 years now. I've seen lots
   of people do things online. Large groups form. I formed a lot of
   groups. And you know what, you're right. They CAN become
   political and make change. But paradigm shift? I dunno - maybe
   I've been living inside of the paradigm shift of the Internet
   itself for so long, I take it for granted. In 1990, I ran a
   group for kids/teens rights. It got thousands and thousands of
   members. We just talked about stuff. Some of them decided to
   split off and make their own causes after meeting up together on
   my group. I have a few examples: One is the NYRA (National Youth
   Rights... something) and another is TCS - Taking Children
   Seriously - a movement by Sarah Fitzgerald and David Deusch (the
   computational physicist) - he was an active member of my group.
   They started a parenting movement that's also still very active.
   anyway, they split off my group, made their own groups, formed
   movements. I guess it's old-hat to me. I know that people do
   things when they meet together online. I started some stuff that
   went somewhere for other people. So, I take it back. It's just
   normal to me. I've seen laws change because I helped bring
   people together who were like-minded and went and did something
   in the 'real world'. But... there's a MUCH HIGHER PERCENTAGE of
   people just talking about change. I think that's what I was
   referring to. If you're gonna do something, figure out what it
   is and do it. == No, you're right. It's affecting more people
   now than it did before. I mean, I saw big changes happen with
   just a few people. I've seen people influence LOTS of people.
   Now, there's a whole GENERATION of people online that never knew
   a world without it. So again, I was mistaken in being critical.
   I work very hard to make positive changes for individuals
   online: That's why I'm here. *I'm* working towards a paradigm
   shift where people can see the world as it is, see what they can
   do, be ok with what they CAN'T do because there is _so much_
   they can do from where they are. So, really, we're on the same
   page here. I think I "saw myself" when you were mentioning
   paradigm shift, and the mirror reflection was unexpected. ==