Comments on: The Polarization of Extremes by Cass R. Sunstein

I found this article to be much more objective and informative than the Facebook article. The author does a great job of showing how the Web pushes people to become more extreme in their views. The author states that people tend to read articles or join communities on the Web that reinforce their current liberal/conservative views on certain issues. However, this polarization is not unique to the Internet. The Web only acts as a catalyst for this type of interaction. For example, off the computer, people tend to choose friends who have similar views to them (like they choose to read websites with similar views to them). By doing so, people surround themselves with friends who have the same views, some with even more extreme views. Just as the net leads to polarization to extremes, so do these groups of friends. The more they talk about their shared views, the more they believe their views are correct. This polarization is the same as the Web's, but the Web allows people to find these "friends," which in this case are websites and online communities, quicker and easier.