embrace my inner self
ok, i've been thinking a lot about it, and i'm just going to embrace my past and post about computer science stuff.
i've thought a lot about blogs lately and who reads them. at dinner group one night i was shocked to know how many people actually read my blog. as a computer scientist i'm well aware that anyone that has access to the internet can access my blog and read it. when i write my blog, i actually write thinking that only certain people will read my blog; thus, writing with them in mind. so, the idea that people outside of my intended audience are reading this is kinda scary! :) (but i don't mind). :)
for me, this begs the question of people's trust in technology and social interaction with technology. i find that more people are more willing to post things to blogs, though some of the information may be more private, than handing out to IM screen names to strangers. i wonder what makes that difference? people worry about stalkers with IM, but you might also have a blog stalker. yet, we're willing to put things in our blogs and more willing to hand it over to the community. i guess that there is still a gradation of the openness of blogs, some still holding on to their anonymity, others just being very open about who they are. in either case, i wonder if it's the social context of the blog that has helped it's explosion and popularity. are blogs one of the success stories of social interaction with technology? if so, what can we learn about blogging that can enable better social interaction with technology?
posted by Ramona @ 9:49 PM
7 Comments:
I dunno- I use IM *less* than my blog. And if anyone has access to my IM, my blog is linked on the profile (or was, for a while, I haven't checked lately)... I only occasionally worry about stalkers, but since I don't put my full name or address or phone number in anything but a locked-down post, I'm not too worried. I mean, I married a guy I met off the Internet, so I can't really get too uptight about using it to meet friends and so forth... I think it's been very useful to me as a tool for social interaction (heck, I talk to people from church about 100% more with the advent of everyone's blogging). But obviously, it has some serious limitations, as well...
Not just your CS background, I see. Also your HCI background. Your past is truly coming back to haunt you.
-DC
Hi. I've invited myself to your blog party!
My suspicion is that blogs are something like social interaction, but probably more akin to a rhetorical analogue of reality TV. Or perhaps voyeurism.
I think the majority of bloggers don't really understand what their blogs entail, in terms of self-disclosure. They may see it as an opportunity to talk with their friends, or to meet interesting people, but I don't think they really have a handle on the magnitude of their exposure.
And I think, ironically, that it is this ignorance that has caused the medium to flourish.
My guess is that blogs are a success story for social interaction with technology because they are new, they're easy to set up, they're free, and they allow people to connect. The issues of security and online identity management are not generally understood, and this lack of understanding has created an incredibly rich growth medium for online interaction.
I wonder if it also has to do with the basic human desire to be listened to. Maybe it satisfies a felt need to put one's thoughts on a public forum, and then see that people from around the world are reading them. Maybe someone's listening to me; maybe someone cares what I think after all.
But I am more than happy to defer in all my opinions to the HCI person!
thanks for your comment gorfchild. i think that many people don't know the ramifications for their posts on blogs, like you said. the issues of security and trust are placed on the user, which may not be a good thing if the users are naive about their reader population.
i think it's been a difficult to get a lot of the research of social interaction in HCI into mainstream. i think people are more aware of the issues of trust and security, which can make some implementations more complex than designed. i think that's what makes blogs so interesting. i think it would be a neat project to study blogs, specifically studying the attitudes of a variety of readers and authors, to gain insight into their success.
i think that many people don't know the ramifications for their posts on blogs
I think many people don't know the ramifications of their speech, either. At least with blogging (and IM), you can delete something before you accidentally say something totally inappropriate or offensive :) So, blogs have an advantage over face-to-face interaction there...
Merci pour le post utile! Je n'aurais pas eu ce le contraire!
Tener un día DINAMITA mi amigo!
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