CONT'D: Talking Pictures | Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The Internet has opened up the floodgates so people who have not been able to advertise their opinions can do so. There have been very smart voices and very dumb voices, but I don't know that it has been all that "freeing." The poor cluck who panned Titanic for AOL found himself on the other end of thousands if not tens of thousands of hate e-mails. All those people who were "ennobled" by Titanic felt their tears had made them superior. They reached some higher spiritual plane that made them send abusive emails to critics.

In some ways the pressure to conform is stronger on the Internet because the reaction is more immediate. You get e-mails like "you should look for another line of work." The level of abuse online is so intense. People who write for the New York Times might get 200 letters but the paper will only run the polite ones-if they run any. On Web sites, you can see scores of abusive emails. So the pressures are just as great, if not greater. I read the emails because 1 in 100 will be smart and enrich my criticism. But you really have to put on your asbestos suit because, not to mix metaphors, it's a jungle...a napalm jungle.

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Nick Braccia is PopPulse's founder. He lives and writes in New Canaan, Connecticut. He can be reached at nbraccia@poppulse.com.