What do you think of blogs? It occurs to me that yo might feel different about different types:
- The personal blog, like Dooce, in which the topic grows out of the blogger's personal life and obsessions, almost like a public diary.
- Blogs kept primarily by one person, but which deal primarily with a personal approach to some topic, like Rocinante or Insta-Pundit
- Blogs sponsored by an online journal or some other entity with its own interests, like professor's blogs or, say, Chomsky's blog on the Z-Magazine Website.
- Blogs kept by a lot of people equally, like Common Dreams.org
- This.
6 comments:
I think that blogs are a great way for some people to vent out their problems. Oftentimes popular blogs among students are www.xanga.com and you read about them posting about "what a miserable day they had" or how great of a day they had" etc... It also enables a person to get noticed. As a common tendancy of most people voices want to be heared. Online blogs are a way for them to be able to have themselves be heared. Another important advantage is that it develops a sense of community. As exemplified by this website students can now analyze interesting articles and share commentary. However disadvantages ocuur when a person who maybe looking over blogs has a negative intention. The website http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/07/blog-stalkers-personal-safety-for-bloggers/ warns bloggers about the danger of stalkers. Missusing information kept on blogs could be dangerous. As one may be suseptible to a haneous crime such as kidnapping or even I.D. theft.
Overall I think blogs are a great way of expressing oneself and developing a sense of community but extra per-caution should be taken as one does not fully know who is reading it.
Commondreams.org is a great blog. In that it is runned by people who donate and not by major corporations which are more suseptible to add filters to the news that is being brought.As I have discussed in my previous post There is still some filters that are to be made. The topics have to branch out from the mainstream media source anyways. And as it says on the mainpage of the website "progressive newswire". A progressive is defined as "1. A person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government." According to dictionary.com. So therefore, news brought up will only be pertaining to that will being the idea of "change for the better" to it's viewers. Something that may not pertain to the topic probably will not be shown. Such as the possibility of an outbreak of a new virus. Which this topic generally is not political and if they have no cure for it then why would they show this. The topic is important nonetheless it may not be viewed on that website.
I am happy to see that people are trying to break off from main media and that commondreams.org has met their $75,000 quota. Which means a lot of people support this and are doing whatever it takes to get this thing rolling.
What aspects of blogs -- or, I suppose, Net communcations in general -- open them to use by sexual and other predators?
What can be done about this?
..
Commondreams.org seems to have a strong following, as they should. They have a lot of commentary from people who don't get exposure or don't get adequate exposure in commercial channels.
"What aspects of blogs -- or, I suppose, Net communcations in general -- open them to use by sexual and other predators?
What can be done about this?"
Aspects about blogs or net communication in general that open them to predators are the fact that oftentimes people put personal information. Or even in the profile/plan view "Location: X city". Many people do not leave it blank. More likely unsuspecting young children who just recently got a hold of the internet.
At the sametime online anonymity contribute to that. Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen did a special report on child predators. A lot of them pose to be someone else or develop persona that are more appealing to their targets. The factthat they are behind a computer also gives them more confidence in their intentions. It is also a general fact that many people want to be heared and have a psychological tendancy to vent out personal problems. A stalker may use this to his advantage and appear to be a "friend" and offer solutions.
What can be done about this is rasing awareness. Even hiring people to offer mandatory classes. And news progeasm like dateline NBC to stir fear towards these child predators. And also more hiring of psychologits that offer help to these people. There are plenty of solutions that can be made, but many of it is difficult and many new laws need to be passed on cyberspace.
I agree with needing stricter laws and punishments for the internet. However, it is very hard to do because tracking can be difficult and that also invades people's privacy. There was one story about a girl committing suicide because of cyber bullying. She apparently befriended a really cute boy on myspace and they were getting along really well. Then one day, he started bashing her and calling her names. Because of this, she killed herself. However, later the parents of this girl found out that it was the parents of a girl down the street in their neighborhood that was posing as this boy. They were friends before but grew apart. However, proceedings were difficult because there was no law that said it could not be done, even though bullying is morally incorrect. There have been many cases similar to this one, but the government and FCC have not come up with a fair law to protect the people as well as leave them their privacy.
Now to talk about the blog. I feel like this blog is a great way to have your (in this case, her) voice heard. Her writing skills and topics lure particular audience members to her blog. Everyone expressed their voice differently though. Some people may find it through painting, dancing, music, a variety of different things. Dooce is a very relatable woman. She is the kind of person a struggeling mother would look to for support. By posting events that occured in her day, problems she ran into, she is showing her real life. People than can feel more at ease that someone else is going through the same thing. She has a particular way of writing, how she titles her entries and how she describes each event. We could be describing the same event, her and i, and people would definitely find hers more appealing. We as an audience can find comfort and hilarity in her words. The fact that she shares such intimate details about her life. She posts pictures of her daughter and her dog. The audience kind of feels like a bystanding friend. In our lonely lives, we feel some sort of connection to this woman and everything that she is going through. Recently she posted about her depression, about how many people feel as if they are weak if they give into medication and therapy. By telling the readers that it's okay, by showing herself as an example of getting better and not struggeling in the misery, it gives strength to other people in the same situation. Whereas at home, a person may be constantly barraged by prozac jokes and mental illness meaning 'crazy,' here is a lady that's saying 'hey, it's okay, i've been there. you aren't crazy, you're just human.'
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