Daily We - Revisited

My first thought when looking at this article was, this is from the year 2001.
That was almost ten years ago.
In 2001, I had just barely started using email and the internet.
A LOT has happened since then.

At the time he wrote this article, Cass Sunstein discussed the possibility of the internet limiting people's views and creating more segregation of thought and influence. He says:
"A system in which you lack control over the particular content that you see has a great deal in common with a public street, where you might encounter not only friends, but a heterogeneous variety of people engaged in a wide array of activities (including, perhaps, political protests and begging)".
And, so, in theory, when people have "control" over the content that they see, the "public sphere" might suffer because of it. People may not come into contact with people who have different perspectives from their own.

But what has really happened over the past ten years?

David Brooks of the New York Times looked at a study that set out to answer just that. Brooks says, “the core finding is that most Internet users do not stay within their communities.”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/opinion/20brooks.html)

The study found that internet activity is actually more integrated than real world interaction. "...Internet users are a bunch of ideological Jack Kerouacs. They’re not burrowing down into comforting nests. They’re cruising far and wide looking for adventure, information, combat and arousal."


What has your experience been? Do you think the internet limits our experience of Others?