Zygmunt Bauman: liquid fear and online alienation

Zygmunt Bauman talks to al Jazeera about the state of the world (video).

Around the 20' mark Zygmunt also briefly touches on how the Internet further divides us, rather than bringing people together (as marketingspeak would have us believe). The minimum social veneer that mediates our behaviour in the offline world is something we're unlearning when at the click of a mouse someone can be permanently excluded from another person's comfort zone.

Well worth a quick gander, IMO...