Friday, September 17, 2004
Blogorrhea
One of my favorite toys lately is the "Random Blogspot Link", which delivers a fresh random blog with every click.
It's interesting to see what people do with their blogs.
Like teenage girls saying "there's this really cute boy at school that I'm dying to talk to but I don't dare because if he found out I like him I'd be sooooo embarrassed". So they put that on a weblog, on the internet, for anyone to find. Yeah.
And faux-cynical "adults" who think up groovy, nihilistic titles for their weblogs, like "random excretions by a terminally boring nobody", then as their first (and only) posting, say "This is my blog. Aren't I stupid?" Yup.
Lots of opinions (see previous posting on "everbody has one"). Opinions are fine, but it does help to be able to substantiate them. Otherwise they get lost in the melee of similarly caloric rants.
There are some troubling mutations of English, which appear to be a combination of 31337-speak and txt abbreviations (yes, it's not easy typing on a mobile phone keypad, so some abbrevs. are inevitable) that have crossed over into the real world. These weblogs typically live in frames overlaid on anime backdrops, with lots o' horizontal scrolling and text almost the same color as the background. Kewl. I think these kids need to say W00T! more often, it would make them sound more intelligent.
Some good uses for weblogs: Well reasoned opinion pieces not merely repeated from other more credible sources. Occupation-specific blogs that give the rest of us insight into a different world. Teachers using them to distribute class assignments (maybe not the most exciting thing to stumble across, but it's a good idea nonetheless).
Some silly uses for weblogs: SEO (search engine optimization). Pr0n. Crackz and serialz. Astroturf (poorly disguised corporate propaganda as virtual vox populis). Rants about the people in one's life, which would cause suicidal embarrassment for the blogger, should someone stumble across one and recognize oneself as the blogger's personal cross to bear.
Click and ye shall find. We should all do more of it.
(3) comments
It's interesting to see what people do with their blogs.
Like teenage girls saying "there's this really cute boy at school that I'm dying to talk to but I don't dare because if he found out I like him I'd be sooooo embarrassed". So they put that on a weblog, on the internet, for anyone to find. Yeah.
And faux-cynical "adults" who think up groovy, nihilistic titles for their weblogs, like "random excretions by a terminally boring nobody", then as their first (and only) posting, say "This is my blog. Aren't I stupid?" Yup.
Lots of opinions (see previous posting on "everbody has one"). Opinions are fine, but it does help to be able to substantiate them. Otherwise they get lost in the melee of similarly caloric rants.
There are some troubling mutations of English, which appear to be a combination of 31337-speak and txt abbreviations (yes, it's not easy typing on a mobile phone keypad, so some abbrevs. are inevitable) that have crossed over into the real world. These weblogs typically live in frames overlaid on anime backdrops, with lots o' horizontal scrolling and text almost the same color as the background. Kewl. I think these kids need to say W00T! more often, it would make them sound more intelligent.
Some good uses for weblogs: Well reasoned opinion pieces not merely repeated from other more credible sources. Occupation-specific blogs that give the rest of us insight into a different world. Teachers using them to distribute class assignments (maybe not the most exciting thing to stumble across, but it's a good idea nonetheless).
Some silly uses for weblogs: SEO (search engine optimization). Pr0n. Crackz and serialz. Astroturf (poorly disguised corporate propaganda as virtual vox populis). Rants about the people in one's life, which would cause suicidal embarrassment for the blogger, should someone stumble across one and recognize oneself as the blogger's personal cross to bear.
Click and ye shall find. We should all do more of it.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Everybody's got one, and most of them stink
I'm thinking about my favorite quotes about free speech -- everything from "the press is free to anybody who owns one" to "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
The Internet has made it cheap and simple for just about anyone to broadcast their ideas, pet theories, opinions, and personal thoughts to the world. On the one hand, it's wonderful to be able to say one's piece without incurring more than the cost of a computer and an internet connection. On the other hand, the simple exercise of free expression can really mess up your life if you're not careful.
Nothing ever truly goes away on the internet. Thanks to Google caches and the Wayback Machine, what you thought was an ephemeral medium turns out to be a massively decentralized archive of everything you, and anyone else, might have said publicly or privately. It's devastatingly easy to go on record with even the most idle thought; it's virtually impossible to dissociate yourself with anything that might embarrass you in a moment of greater clarity.
As entertaining as it is to "Google" someone's name (or your own), consider the paranoia inducing likelihood that the things you (or even someone with the same name as you) say online could come back to haunt you when you're dealing with any kind of stranger who wants to know more about you before making a decision affecting your future. What your friends would recognize as an out-of-character moment or a case of mistaken identity, a curious stranger might "recognize" as proof of your bad character.
Don't imagine that your pre-internet past will remain buried. I was surprised to discover things I'd written for a printed newsletter back in the 1980s are now online. This isn't anything I'd consider personally devastating, but it wasn't my best work and I'd just as soon people not judge my writing or analytical ability based on those short articles. But they will, because they're among the highest ranked items Google returns when I search for my name.
There is no private communication on the internet. There is no context on the internet. Whatever you say that is attributable to you can and will be misconstrued and made controversial at an awkward moment. It is no longer possible to keep your personal life, your politics, religion, hobbies and opinions, however lawfully protected they might be, private from someone who wants to snoop.
Think about that the next time you send an email, post a comment on a blog, enter a chat room, join a mailing list or a newsgroup. There's a certain nobility in standing up for what you believe in. For everything else, there's the Random Name Generator.
(0) comments
The Internet has made it cheap and simple for just about anyone to broadcast their ideas, pet theories, opinions, and personal thoughts to the world. On the one hand, it's wonderful to be able to say one's piece without incurring more than the cost of a computer and an internet connection. On the other hand, the simple exercise of free expression can really mess up your life if you're not careful.
Nothing ever truly goes away on the internet. Thanks to Google caches and the Wayback Machine, what you thought was an ephemeral medium turns out to be a massively decentralized archive of everything you, and anyone else, might have said publicly or privately. It's devastatingly easy to go on record with even the most idle thought; it's virtually impossible to dissociate yourself with anything that might embarrass you in a moment of greater clarity.
As entertaining as it is to "Google" someone's name (or your own), consider the paranoia inducing likelihood that the things you (or even someone with the same name as you) say online could come back to haunt you when you're dealing with any kind of stranger who wants to know more about you before making a decision affecting your future. What your friends would recognize as an out-of-character moment or a case of mistaken identity, a curious stranger might "recognize" as proof of your bad character.
Don't imagine that your pre-internet past will remain buried. I was surprised to discover things I'd written for a printed newsletter back in the 1980s are now online. This isn't anything I'd consider personally devastating, but it wasn't my best work and I'd just as soon people not judge my writing or analytical ability based on those short articles. But they will, because they're among the highest ranked items Google returns when I search for my name.
There is no private communication on the internet. There is no context on the internet. Whatever you say that is attributable to you can and will be misconstrued and made controversial at an awkward moment. It is no longer possible to keep your personal life, your politics, religion, hobbies and opinions, however lawfully protected they might be, private from someone who wants to snoop.
Think about that the next time you send an email, post a comment on a blog, enter a chat room, join a mailing list or a newsgroup. There's a certain nobility in standing up for what you believe in. For everything else, there's the Random Name Generator.
