The weblogging experience
May 17, 2003 on 11:03 pm | In Misc | Comments OffNYTimes has posted a thought provoking article on the weblog experience known as blogging. The author touches on the phenomenon of ordinary people turning into reporters, reporting on the details of their own lives, and how it affects their friends, family, and job. I personally have already run into trouble commenting with sarcasm on a friend’s weblog. I honestly don’t think badly about the corporation for which I work, so I’m not worried about commenting on them. My wife even mentioned once that when she read the post the day before we were married it made her cry (in a good way). This article covers some much more unfortunate stories.
“While personal blogs have been around for years, their proliferation has caused a wrinkle in the social fabric among people in their teens, 20’s and early 30’s. Inundated with bloggers, they are finding that every clique now has its own Matt Drudge, someone capable of instantly turning details of their lives into saucy Internet fare.”
“”It’s like all your friends are reporters now,” said Douglas Rushkoff, a blogger and author of “Media Virus” and other books about the impact of technology on society.”
One woman even lost her job as a result of her exaggerated entries relating to her job and coworkers.
“When her bosses were alerted that Ms. Armstrong was writing about her office life, they fired her, she said. She is now much more careful about what she publishes in her blog, and she had a word of caution for bloggers who write furtively about others. “If you’re publishing under your own name, they’ll find out,” she said. “I was extremely na