Bruce Barcott on the loss of newspapers:
It matters because papers exist in the physical world, the meatspace with the rest of us, and the fact of their existence, in print on paper, sitting on every corner of downtown Seattle, reminds us that there’s a larger conversation going on around us. She’s worried that the physical existence of newspapers binds us together as a society. Without it, we float off into our private little nodes of self-interest.
Woops! Bruce meant to write “metaspace,” not “meatspace.” We need copy editors just as badly in the blogosphere as anywhere else. (Maybe more.)
That is an interesting take and a perspective I hadn’t seen before.
By the way, the misspelled “meatspace” seems to work in an odd sort of way.
“Bruce meant to write ‘metaspace,’ not ‘meatspace.’ ”
Why would he mean to write “metaspace”? What is that? “Meatspace” is a widely used term that refers to the offline — i.e., physical — world. It’s the opposite of “cyberspace.” And it sounds like that’s exactly what he’s discussing in the post.
Or am I missing a running joke here or something?