The Dynamic of Anonymity… Redux…
(This first ran in late May, 2005, soon after my trek to the unknown Planet Blog got under way. The topic surfaces from time-to-time somewhere in the corner of this strange world I roam. Recently there were posts and comments on several unrelated blogs that broached the subject and once again tickled my fancy. Revisiting my own original post got my juices flowing on the subject once again. So I decided to throw it against the wall again and see what sticks…)
Just returned from Tamar’s place where I read her post entitled “We shed our land legs to sing in cyberspace”, PLUS ALL the comments. Rarely do comments interest me nearly as much as the original post, but this one is different in a way I’m still trying to define for myself. So bear with me, please…
Click on over and read Tamar’s post AND the comments. Then come back here later for the continuation of my emesis, which will use the same post name “Part 2″. May take a little while, this being a holiday weekend with other time demands…
PART 2 May 30 (Continued in the original post so as to keep my plea for help at the top)
Being a newbie … aren’t we all? … I’ve done considerable thinking and reading about the impact of the “blog” (God, how I have come to hate that word!) on our culture, our society, and on us as individuals tangled in our multi-layered matrices with others like and unlike us. Most of the popular (read “uninformed”) media seem to interpret this great new method of communication in terms of how it will influence markets and elections. Some recent examinations by the more technically oriented media expand those notions to include organizational intramural collaboration by project teams. Certainly there are seeds of truth in all those limited assessments, but they seem to miss what may be far more significant if we attempt to look 2 or 5 or 10 years down the road we seem to be traveling.
Somewhere around the age of 12 or 13 I got a “pen pal” through Boys Life, the Boy Scouts magazine. Hari was a lad about my age, also a Scout, who lived in India. Over a 2 or 3 year period until he left for University, we shared and compared our experiences of life in rural Tennessee and urban India. So much was different on the surface, yet so much more of what really mattered was the same. That “sameness in diversity” was to become one of my earliest awakenings. One of my “Memorabilia” boxes still contains all the letters he sent. I wonder what ever happened to Hari.
As a teenager I studied, practiced using a key, and squeaked by the exam to become a Novice class Amateur Radio operator. The world was mine to explore on my chosen 15-meter band. It was gratifying to reach out for “conversations” with fellow hams, none of whom I would ever meet in person. For a while. The drag and drudgery of Morse code seemed so archaic and limiting, but was the only option open to a Novice. Time to take my General test came in the middle of my first semester in college; needless to say my attention had turned to other more pressing priorities, like how to deal with “crazy little women” and how the hell to get through Calculus 101. Never did learn enough about either of those.
A few years later, then living in Iowa, I was in the first wave of hobbyists to put up a gawd-awful CB base station antenna on my house. 10-4 Good Buddy…The Handyman backatcha… But talking to a half-dozen or so “local-yokels” within a 5-mile range and trying desperately to carry on any intelligent conversation with the truckers rolling through on the nearby interstate soon lost its luster. Wanna buy one slightly used base antenna?
The intervening years brought other increasingly sophisticated forms of communication, some point-to-point, others broadly cast. I tried them all. Portable phones, faxes, pagers, cell phones, email, buddy-lists and IRC (never did those last two - too many problems, too much risk). Now the wonderful world of the weblog.
Both of you who are still with me and haven’t either snoozed off or clicked away, are probably mumbling to the tune of where the hell is this guy going? What do a childhood pen pal and a 10-4 good buddy have to do with the original thread over at Tamar’s place? Maybe nothing…maybe everything. I am an engineer, not a sociologist, though I have studied sociology. I am an IT (Information Technology) professional (read: fixes computers and networks for pay), not a behavioral psychologist, but I’ve also had courses in that. Maybe I’m sort of a techie version of Al Capp who claimed to be an “Expert on Nothing with Opinions on Everything”. Maybe we need some professional help in figuring this out. Or maybe I need to get back on my medication and shut the hell up! But just a few more thoughts before I wrap this…
Foreign pen pal, ham radio, CB radio, blogging. The common denominator in this progression is anonymous communication, or as the title lifted from Tamar’s posting suggests, “the dynamic of anonymity”. I can be who I want to be, say what I want to say, in a relatively safe and non-threatening venue. Even though some of us display photos and bios, who is to know if those are real or otherwise. Just as some of us use our real names, others use pseudonyms, or as I prefer to call them, “chosen names”. We do not really know…or care…about the “real” gender, race, religion, politics, social standing, or the myriad attributes that tend to influence our perception, feelings, acceptance or rejection of other individuals in the real face-to-face world. And for that reason alone, and even if we have donned a made-up personna, we may be more honest and revealing, accepting and tolerant, here on the planet we call Blog.
I agree with Frank Paynter’s comment on Tamar’s post that “the friendships we build online are reason enough to pursue this new form.” Reason enough, yes, but not the primary reason or result. The non-threatening openness and honesty in communication is what I felt was important SIGNIFICANT about the original thread. For it is in questioning that we learn, in sharing that we grow.
So, what’s next? My gut feeling is that whatever it is, whatever it is called, it will extend/expand the paradigm of the blog, both as realtime communication and archival information, onto something small, portable, wearable. Poddish, but smaller, better, different. Think Dick Tracy’s wristwatch. And if we don’t change the drift and direction of the feds, the gadgetry will probably be implanted by edict at birth. But that opens a whole other can of blog fodder.
I am exhausted! Original intent: a couple of succinct comments. Reality: auto-biographical ramblings, bordering on psychosis, most likely without saying anything coherent or worthwhile.
16 Comments so far
Winston,
sadly you forgot one important point.
The most important thing is quality of content.
‘Cos if it ain’t there, the fun stops (CB, IM etc).
ten-four,
Stu
(at one time G5FK on top band).
Winston, this is interesting to re-read and think about again. I remember your post quite well. In fact, I was impressed with how well I remembered. I think Stu has an important point that quality of content is important and of course that is relative to all our biases, isn’t it? I would be interested to read what you think about all this now. Have your feelings, views changed in any way? I, for one, am so much more at ease with blogging. I care a lot less than I used to how many people comment, and write a lot more for the sake of writing and self-reflection. Am always happy to hear from people and adore being linked to (so thanks for that!). I love the community feeling of the blog world but don’t have any great illusions that blog friendships will last for life. It feels temporary and “cyber” like … meaning: “out there!” Complicated. Complex. Delicious!
That was a lot to think about and it will take some musing, pondering, muddling over, and sorting out. I am a blog reader, not a blog writer…because I don’t want the commitment, because I fear my writing isn’t up to Stu’s standard of quality content, because I am reluctant to reveal myself as would be required by my own standard of honesty. However, I am amazed at my own acquaintances who do not know what “blogs” are…and most believe that it is only about teenagers on “My Space”. I also had a pen pal as a teen and am currently trying to carry on a correspondence with a woman in Stockholm whom I have met.
I also have a 20-something friend who is writing a blog about his cancer and treatment.
What would be interesting to me would be some statistics on some of those jargon terms about who blogs, thru which providers (is that the correct term for blog hosts?), how often, who reads, in what parts of the world…I may be a closet sociologist or just curious.
At any rate, this is a great topic for futher investigation.
Hi Winston!
What an interesting topic, and stimulating thoughts and comments from Stu, Tamarika and Bonnie.
I like imagining your threads of expression/listening reaching through letters, and radio, and online writing.
The first blog (I don’t care much for that word either) I ever read, and was inspired by, was Chris Corrigan’s — the link is part of his email signature. Chris is one of those folks who is very publically transparent, which shows up in the simple way that most every trace of him online (from work-related articles and forum and listserv postings to comments left on personal blogs) that I’ve ever run across includes both his first & last names. (of course, the universe is big! and Chris is surely engaged in places and areas that I won’t probably run across!) Anyway, I thought that was what everyone did, until I branched out into reading some more private weblogs, where people used, as you say, “chosen names” that were not traceable to anything in the rest of their lives.
Then when I started blogging myself, I was mostly writing for me (the “archival information” idea that you mention — a place to store links and ideas and things in the world that interested me) and for friends who blogged, whom I did already know in person. It has been unexpected & fun for me to have developed affection through it all for people I haven’t ever met! Though my impression continues to be (since I have never figured out how to track the statistic things) that most of the people who read my blog are people in my face to face world, and it’s interesting to me that they never leave comments there, but will instead mention something about a recent post to me in person or via email.
Ooo. I went on a little longer than I intended to! Like Tamarika, I am interested to hear what you think about all this now.
warm new year wishes,
Christy
@Bonnie,
there were some (of my) stats in my december 3rd entry, see
http://www.savory.de/blog_dec_06.htm#20061203
Thanks to all who have read and commented thus far. My responses:
On the question first raised by Stu about “quality of content”, there are indeed a couple of indirect references, such as the lack of intelligent conversation on CB causing it to lose its luster. However, you are right that I did not address content directly. While I offer no excuses, I do ask you to consider the following explanations.
1. This focus of this essay is really on the nature and importance of relationships that we develop in the blog world, not on the communication process itself. Admittedly the two are tightly interwoven and cannot be partitioned off quite so easily. This is a blog post (too long already) and not an exhaustive intellectual inquiry, so shortcuts must be taken. At time that may degrade quality. In this case, knowing my intent, it did not.
2. This is not meant to be a “smartass” answer at all. You and I are old enough to know that “quality” is a must in all our endeavors. Life is too fleeting to waste our time dealing with the chaff, so our default mode is to seek the quality and ignore the noise. That is implied in all unless stated otherwise…
Some of you also raised the question of how I feel about all this subject nearly two years later. There has undoubtedly been fine-tuning of some points, filing off the sharp edges of others, but my basic position and feelings and assessments have not changed measurably. My summary statement is one I can still stand behind:
“I agree with Frank Paynter’s comment on Tamar’s post that ‘the friendships we build online are reason enough to pursue this new form.’ Reason enough, yes, but not the primary reason or result. The non-threatening openness and honesty in communication is what I felt was significant about the original thread. For it is in questioning that we learn, in sharing that we grow.”
Repeat: It is in questioning that we learn, in sharing that we grow.
It’s interesting that most of Christy’s readers are people she sees in person on a regular basis. My circumstance is just the opposite: Aside from my wife, I see only one of my readers on a regular basis and have met only 2 other regular readers (one of whom has since shut down his own blog, so I don’t know if he comes around any more). That’s one reason why I was wondering at my own blog the other day whether it might benefit from being a bit more Kansas-specific: most of the time, it feels like it is in Wichita but not of Wichita. Sometimes I’m okay with that; other times, though, I wistfully fantasize about meeting someone on my morning or evening walk with Scruffy who will come up and say, “Hey–aren’t you that Stretch of River guy?”
I also go along with the archive analogy as regards my blog; but I’d fine-tune that a bit by noting that archives are storage places that only a select few have access to. My blog, though, is accessible by anyone. So I feel an obligation to have this gathered-up stuff make sense to the unsuspecting souls who stumble across my place. I’m more like a curator, then: “This stuff matters to me/This is how I see things; I (implicitly) invite you to consider the possibility that these things might matter to you as well, even if you don’t agree with what I say about them.” If the Smithsonian is the Nation’s Attic, its contents on display, then my blog is my equivalent, my virtual attic.
But. The best blogs–that is, the ones I most enjoy–are not mere displays of stuff but have good, attentive readers whom the writer interacts with in comments and posts. I have posted this on numerous occasions at my place: to the extent that my blog is “good,” my readers have made it thus. I am flattered and humbled and more than a little intimidated by the fact that some very smart people regularly visit and read, so I do my best in my posts not to embarrass myself. As Winston implies through his repeated statement in the comment above, those of us whose respect for our readership is borne out in our blogging are clearly the beneficiaries, not because of whatever strokes our egos might receive but because we are growing as people, becoming more knowledgeable of and thoughtful about the world. When I first started blogging, I thought the basic format for blogs was: I talk, all y’all listen up. And many of them–the “Dear Diary” sorts of blogs, I mean–are indeed like that . . . but somewhere along the line, though, I figured out that that wouldn’t work. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have stuck with this for what will be 3 years in February. Learning and growing: yes, indeed. I think (well, okay: I hope) blogging has made me a better reader, a better writer, a more observant person, considerably more thoughtful about what I do in the classroom and, recently, more thoughtful about my students’ much-changed relationship with and felt responsibilities toward knowledge and learning and what I can/should do about that as a teacher.
Sorry to prattle on so. Bu that’s what Winston gets when he poses thought-provoking questions and his commenters respond in kind.
I failed to respond to the tête à tête question and was reminded of that with JohnB’s comment. I personally know a couple of people, non-bloggers, who occasionally read my blog, but as recollection serves me, neither has ever commented here. So for practical purposes, all of my readership and all of my commentership are people I know only online in this virtual circle-blog. To me, this fact is neither good nor bad, but just “is”.
I stuck with you all the way! And I’m glad I did. As usual, you offered a very well thought-out post about your topic. Though I’m somewhat of a ‘newbie’ in blogging, I’ve quickly realized that this can be more than just a fun little diversion. I’ve never met anyone who writes a blog that I read…or who has commented on my blog. And yet, I’m starting to have some great little conversations with many of them. And these are folks I would never have the chance to talk with in a face-to-face meeting.
I’ve also been surprised by WHO is blogging. I jumped in thinking it was mostly 20-something tech geeks and teens over on myspace. Little did I know! I’ve got several blogs (yours included, my friend!) that I read who are written by folks closer to my age. I also read a couple of amazingly written blogs by high school students. And age doesn’t matter here! It is just the conversation!
I like this place. It offers us much as we go forward.
Interesting topic. I guess when I began blogging, I had experienced already getting to know people through the internet, forming friendships and meeting them for real. I already had seen how some create fake identities but everyone that I became friends with and later met was who I expected. Meeting for real just enriched our experience which generally but not always continued online. I met all of those original friends through chat rooms which I no longer go to. Back then, but also would be true today, when I want to get to know someone online better, but not lose the anonymnity to start, we do it with msn messenger (or more rarely yahoo messenger).
My blog didn’t attract many of my real time friends or family but they were all told about it and given the URL which I think most never used. Blogging seems strange to a lot of people. I have one long time friend our youth, who we meet for tea often and to visit and she reads and comments in my blog regularly. The rest of my friends and family if they read what I say, which a few do regularly, they write their comment to me in email. I have had the same experience that most do with blogging– generally real time friends have no interest in reading mine.
Because of my long time experience with other forms of meeting people, I am more comfortable at the idea that relationships go in and out of cyber and real. That if I trust someone on here, I am open to meeting them and blogging doesn’t seem different to me than what I experienced earlier for that. I have yet to meet a blogging friend partly because I haven’t been doing it long, but I am open to meeting some I have come to trust. I think it’s great to meet for real as Tamar described or others I read. Once I decide to be a friend with someone blogging, I begin to drop the levels of protection by giving them more information. I don’t do it instantly as I think there are risks online and I don’t need problems more than I can create for myself in real time.
Incidentally, once I begin to make a friend online, and now they would all come through blogging, those people are real to me. I am not into fantasy and prefer to know and be known if I put time into someone. I do understand if someone I meet prefers to remain unknown because I am very aware of the risks in the cyber world.
… well, I’m glad that you are doing what you are doing….
Oh, good comments!
I just counted through the approximately 100 blogs I subscribe to (about 2/3 are written by one person or a small group of people whose personalities shine through, and about 1/3 of the blogs I subscribe to are organizational or newsy ones, like Inhabitat, or Popgadget) and I have met or had substantial phone conversations with only 20 of them…and it was not as easy as it might seem, to count, since I had to think twice about several people (”wait…I’m sure I know that one…oh, I guess we haven’t actually ever met…”
Maybe there is more or less blurring of lines between face to face life, and online life, depending on where you are? Here in Seattle it seems like there are many opportunities to meet other bloggers (meet-ups and mashups and blogwalks, etc), though I think that many of the folks who participate in those blog as part of their professional presence as well as for personal interest.
Hi Winston
As a newcomer to blogs () and having no higher or noble intentions other than fun I was amazed at the content that I found here and elsewhere. And that will keep me comming back.
The progression from full to half then zero anonymity with certian bloggers have been very rewarding. In the revealing of yourself to a complete ’stranger’ you do grow. Certainly there are risks but where is it risk free.
Please keep up the Artificial Indifference.
NB: Spellchecker (UK English) wants to change blogger to loggers, floggers or bogglers.
I wanted to comment on this when I first saw it a few days ago, but my chaotic environment was not conducive to coherent thought. The house is quiet now, so this is a good time.
I won’t comment on my experiences with the various forms of communiction here, will save that for my own blog real estate. I will say, however, that I’ve been enriched by all things I’ve tried, whether as a listener of shortwave, a letter writer, or 2-way exchanges, whether over CB or computer.
I share my real name with the world, and with a select few, I share much more. A risky business this, but for the most part, I’d say it’s paid off in spades. Oh sure, I’ve been burned a time or two, but that won’t stop me from forming new friendships, relationships, or whatever. Without risk, there is no chance of gain. I’ve gained friends, lovers, an ex husband, and a future husband, all through the wonderful world of electronic comms.
This is a wonderful post, brought back many pleasant memories, and will eventually result in a “comm” post of my own, as soon as I can wrap my “two remaining brain cells” around it
True confessions… I intend to rad this post, but time is passing and I haven’t read it yet. I skimmed into it because you were kind enough to link to my comment. I think this is one of those entering wedge posts, a post that momentum to the whole online personal publishing thing, but how would I know? I barely skimmed it! Sometime this weekend… the reason I’m leaving this comment is that I am often guilty of being caught up in the imediacy of the thing. If it was good, and itr was yesterday, we seem to say, let’s wrap our virtual fish in it or line our virtual birdcage. I think it’s better to know that there is something out there I intend to read, than to just pass it by because it lacks currency.
Wait! I already read this! Well, I’ll just re-read again now.