From a letter to the editor of Salon, in response to an article about a nanny who was fired after her employer read the nanny’s blog (which she had told the employer about, and which contained musings on the family she worked for):
- “I have the right to express myself!” I’m sure [the nanny] would claim. But I have the right to say that I find the entire phenomenon of blogging, with its staggeringly adolescent focus on the One and Only Me, to be indicative of an utter disregard for other people, a fraternal-twin to the phenomenon of cellphone users who screech away on the street without any conception that they are forcing others to listen.
My initial thought is, this is an incredibly clumsy argument, to compare bloggers with cell-phone yammerers, since nobody is forced to listen to a blogger. Honestly, don’t people learn critical thinking skills anymore?
Still… Bloggers. Adolescent. Disregard for other people. Discuss…
21 Responses to “blogging thought of the day”
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» I have been remiss in posting SBJ’s latest stats: 23 pounds and 27 inches at six months. Yes, I’ve got the big mama biceps.
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Rights are always balanced by responsibilities.
You have the right to express yourself. You do not have the right to expect people to act as if you haven’t done so.
If you take action, expect to be held responsible.
XT
Where do Letters to the Editor fall on this spectrum?
Oh that’s hogwash. We live half a country apart, yet are able to communicate on an almost day to day basis. Through a “blog,” I’m able to see what not only you are up to, but what my brother-in-law is up to, what my niece is up to, what someone I think I’ve only met once or twice is up to (notshychirev), and other people that post on your journal.
There are self-centered people all over the blogosphere, but I think our family and friends are people who blog the right way.
I’m glad you wrote about this…honestly, lately I’ve wondered whether I really am a shallow, two-dimensional, self-centered prick due to the material I post on my blog…as well as for being a blogger in general.
This, on the heels of returning from a delightful “coffee/closure” session with my ex, who informed me we never had a “mature relationship” and part of it was ’cause I spent more time blogging than emailing her, well, it’s safe to say I’m going through an existential blogging crisis…
I’m just not strong enough to go on, RM. Help me - you’re my only hope!
“,” as you’d write.
Actually, you are right. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t read it. Although if you cruise around there are a lot of blogs that are the “me, me, me” kinda thing. Actually, mine is a sorta “me, me, me” kinda thing. Ah, well.
I really like the comment. That got me giggling.
you mean, it’s not supposed to be all about me?
it’s my friggin blog. i’ll write what i wanna write, and you can read it or not. free choice.
though i will say, i have either 1. made private or 2. deleted entirely passages with regard to “real” people in case it compromised me or hurt their feelings (even if they deserved to have said feelings hurt.)
i blog for me. that’s all. if that makes me a self-centered, two-dimensional, shallow creature , oh well. the people that know me and love me know different, and that’s enough for me. as for the others…well, if i cared what they thought it might hurt.
hmmfph.
Delete “blogging”, substitute, “websites”, “newsgroups”, chat rooms”, etc., and you got the same arguement in the past, all bogus.
There’s crappy blogs and good ones; ones with vauluable discussion and information, and ones that are entirely filled with self-pity and egotism.
*But*, just like you said, no one is forcing readers to type in URLs and read this stuff. It’s not like someone cornering you and trying to shove a treastise in your hands and jam their believes onto you.
Frankly, it’s one of the poorest arguements I’ve heard, and Salon should have shown more judgement in running it.
Ha! Keith!
Yeah, I must admit that this letter is a particularly weak strawman that is laughably easy to knock down. But I too was disappointed in Salon.
Re: the “all about me” criticism often levied at blogs. I certainly see where the naysayers are coming from (I get irritated with my own navel-gazing at times), and yet would respond “so what if it is all about me?” But part of what I find interesting is trying to communicate the particular in a way that resonates with something more universal. That’s what good blogs do IMO, and why some are fun to read and others insufferably boring. I’m sure I fail at this task with some regularity, but it’s fun to try. Other times I don’t even try–it *is* a journal after all.
To Blog or not to Blog… In my house my adoring hubby writes/owns 3 blogs (that I know of) and writes/supports so many others, I on the other hand, read the 3 that I know of and maybe 2 others (postsecret is great). It is a choice I make, and when XT puts something out there about me or the family I comment accordingly on line and off, but I have yet to ask or demand that something be removed, its his perspective on the situation, no matter how I view it (i.e.: the whole marrige/cow thing); its his right to put it up, its my right to ignore it. Should be the same for all, I would think.
Peace and Prayers…
Beth
The very first comment I posted on my blog was entitled “Emotional Flashing” because one of the tricky things about blogging is that anyone can stop by and ‘overhear’ what you are saying without any context. We don’t walk up to strangers and bare our souls very often — there is a process of acquaintance wherein depth is built. The more personal I make my blog the more I worry whether I’m just ‘flashing’ people, and that seems a little, er, inappropriate. ?
Well, I’ve written here before about Ayelet “I love my husband more than my children” Waldman, who freely admits she is an exhibitionist. Blogging does seem custom-made for such people.
I share personal things here, but I also have a filter on. Because my anonymity is never guaranteed, and I’ve probably shared enough over the months that a determined person could find me pretty quickly if they wanted. Also because, well, it’s just icky.
I think I’ve shared here that the Police song “Message in a Bottle” seems like a good analogy for blogging. You throw your little message out there, and when someone responds back, “message received,” it’s neat. Not to mention other people’s bottles that float by.
I guess.
I just like talking about myself.
So would you still blog if nobody read it?
And more to the point, if you post an entry and nobody’s there to read it, is it still a blog?
if nobody read it?
I don’t understand.
[chuckle]
Speaking of, I just noticed RM, whether intentionally or not, has the perfect disclaimer for this issue with her lead Anne Morrow Lindbergh quote.
(Am I the only one who doesn’t know who Anne Morrow Lindbergh is? Really?)
‘Just a castaway, an island lost at seee-yoh.
She was an aviator and author, married to Charles Lindbergh, and that quote is from a book called Gift of the Sea, described in Wikipedia as a “meditation on the meaning of a woman’s life.”
BTW Dickie re: comment 4, I read that entry where you talked about that–what nincompoopery. From the e-mailer, not you. It annoys me when people criticize something for not being something else, when it never claimed to be that other thing. (Clear as mud? No, but I don’t know how else to put it.)
That is, if your canoe trip entry was billed as high-minded literature or incisive analysis, well, you deserve to be taken down a peg. But it wasn’t–it was a playful recounting of a fun day, with photos, and it didn’t claim to be more than that.
Very interesting comments. My opinion…I blog cause I want to. If not one reads it…no biggie. If someone does and comments….nice perk for me. I also read alot of blogs that are over-all positive. I do not read the negative catty ones. That is my choice. Just like previously mentioned turning the channel. I think that you can say what you want to within a blog BUT you do have to be mindful that your right does not overlap someone elses right. I think it is much to easy to be ugly, selfish and spiteful in a blog and that is not a good thing.
Blogging is a means of recording cultural history. http://www.geocities.com/prof_s_rowland/MIULarch.htm#1/6/05 expresses my thoughts on this.
Well, durn. All the good comments are taken. I like blogging because it has gotten me into the habit of writing regularly. For years I have said “I oughtta be writing that stuff down!” and haven’t done it. I write for fun not for enlightenment. (Trying desperately to avoid the literary equivalent of the Peter Principle. Although literary is probably a strong word.) I’m thrilled that other people read it and seem to like it. But mostly I’m happy that it is written down and not just swimming in my head.
I do find it interesting that, just like in live conversation, people hear what they want to hear or expect to hear in your writing. There is still only get a small part of the message passed on to the audience.
Ah, I posted on one aspect of the blog-thing, now I’ll look at it from another.
Yeah, a lot of blogging is personal. Ever read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”? Very personal. It’s also one of the most moving pieces of american political thought in existence.
Psychologist Carl Rogers once remarked, “What is most personal, I find quite often to be very general. Conversely, what is most general, I find very rarely to be most personal.”
It’s like a conversion experience. You can hear all your life that God loves everyone, but until you realize that it isn’t just everyone else, it’s YOU - well, that’s when it becomes a life-changing experience.
In a time and a world where walls are constantly being thrown up to separate people from those around them, every tool that allows those walls to be knocked down, climbed over, or tunneled under should be marveled at.
Now, let’s talk about me…
XT
I’m still catching up with blog entries from the three days I was away, so here is a belated comment.
We live in a world that is always becoming new, and that’s not just technology or society, it’s theology. Maybe we’re on the edge of something that will last until it becomes as commonplace. Once upon a time a long-distance phone call meant a death; now we live in a ten-digit world and carry phones in our pockets and thing nothing of calling whomever we feel like speaking to right this minute! I suspect that blogging will become less provocative.
I like doing it because it primes the pump for other writing. I’ve never been more creative than I have been in the past year, as blogging has become more a part of my week. It gives me a place to process. And it has provided a new community, one that I have come to love.
Some people, reverendmother, just need something to hate, and some of them have chosen for it to be blogging.