Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Blogs Are the New Water Cooler

The newest medium for gossip is the web log... but you already knew that, didn't you? Sex seems to be the most prolific topic, which either gets you into a lot of trouble, a book deal, or both (as in the case of Washingtonienne).

"Unconstrained by journalistic conventions, bloggers are blurring the lines between public events and ordinary social interactions and changing the way we date, work, teach and live. And as blogs continue to proliferate, citizens will have to develop new understandings about what parts of our lives are on and off the record."

I haven't really grasped the full effect blogging can have; I still consider myself a novice. Privacy issues are not something I've thought about either. I have yet to ask permission before posting about someone or their picture. Maybe I should? Is that etiquette? And there is always the possibility of attracting stalkers (not for me, but people I blog about.. I'm an attention whore ;).

"As personal blogging proliferates, an etiquette is beginning to emerge. In a forthcoming study of nearly 500 bloggers...more than a third of the respondents said they had 'gotten in trouble' for material posted on their blog, and a third knew other bloggers who had gotten into trouble with family and friends. Those who wrote frequently about 'highly personal materials' got into trouble most often of all."

Sadly, it's those 'highly personal blogs' that are the most interesting. At its core, isn't it all just some popularity contest anyway? If so, how does anonymity work?

Read "Your Blog or Mine". [via NYT]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't think I've ever gotten in trouble for anything I've posted on my ph-log, but I'm sure it's only a
matter of time.


Here are some pics from the party:
http://www.acedigitalarts.com/greedy.html

xo - A