I read PC Magazine religiously. It manages to give a fairly well-informed rundown of all things 'tech.' While there's obviously an emphasis on PC hardware and software, it also covers most things Internet-related, some things Mac-related, and even has blurbs on telecom and Wi-Fi. It's a good catch-all. However, one side effect of their overarching format is a tendency to dummy down some articles so as to appeal to the widest possible demographic. Recently they ran an article on social-networking sites. To the author's credit, it is well-written and offers a pretty decent overview of the entire subject in just a few pages. That said, the article also has some funny bits which don't appear in the online version linked to above such as an illustrated sidebar explaining the 'typical' MySpace and Flickr users. Typical Flicker users "are a mixed bag, but tend to be a bit older than the personal-profile set - typically 21 and up." This next to a cartoon image of a 20-something female hipster holding a camera and looking intellectual and artsy. Beside her is the 'typical' MySpace user, who looks like a cross between Billy Joe Armstrong and Matt Dillon. This user is "a young man from 18 to 25" who more often than not is a musician. It's not that these descriptions are necessarily wrong or naive. Stereotypes can be useful. It's just kind of funny when people hold up the sociologist's magnifying lens to current cultural trends. Reading parts of the article made me think of the scene in Fear and Loathing when Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo are seated in the audience at the police convention and are listening to the speaker "L. Ron Bumquist" analyze the drug culture. A dope fiend refers to the reefer butt as a 'roach' because . . . it resembles a cockroach.

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