The Internet age should be a golden age for bridge figures and for xenophiles. The same tools that make it possible for me to obsessively follow Ghanaian politics and Japanese sumo wrestling from my home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, also allow Erik to guide me through Nairobi without ever leaving my house. Learning about South African music—and collaborating with South African musicians—no longer requires airplane tickets, passports, and Paul Simon’s recording budget (though having a Hilton Rosenthal may still be a pre-requisite). That said, the information that the Internet puts at our fingertips also represents a major challenge by enabling us to cocoon ourselves in information that’s unthreatening and unsurprising. If our friends are interested in the same people and places we are, we end up reinforcing our biases and prejudices by following the links they forward us, rather than expanding our worldview.
The Bridge Personality | design mind