blogging questions

Someone emailed me these questions for a research thing so I thought I'd answer them here. And if anyone else wants to chime in I'm sure they'd be grateful.

what does it mean to you - expressing your ideas and intrests on the web?

It's a way of getting my thoughts out of my head and finding out what I think. I'm very bad at working on my own, much better at collaboration and the blog is a small way of getting around that. It relates to that quote 'how can I know what i think until I hear what I say'. I'm the same, I don't know what I think until I see what I blog. And ebcb is just a silly little interest that got too big.

I've always been a person who had ideas of things to do but never ever did anything about them. The internet (and blogging and let's not understate the value of digital photography) is a really easy way of doing something about them. EBCB has taught me the value of just starting things. If you start something, and do a little bit every now and then, suddenly you look back and you realise you've done a lot. I like that.

I also find it a great way of keeping a personal history. I've never kept a diary or journal or anything but now I have a searchable index of lots of the stuff I've thought about.

who do you think reads it?

I don't really know who reads it. There's quite a lot of people who find things accidentally. And it's become very little to do with me.

Then there are people who I would now kinda regard as my friends even though I've never met them. Like Dave and Anne. (Hope that's not too presumptuous or sad.) And then there's people I used to know a bit (like Steve) who I think I know much more now. Via their blogs. And their interaction with this one. I suspect blogs shouldn't really be understood as singular things, they should be understood as bundles of people and threads

and, how would you express these intrests if the internet didn't exist?

I'd mutter in my sleep.

just a short reply would do.

ok

i'm just doing some work on internet communities and if the internet is complementary tool for
forming social bonds of whether it takes away from physical social relations.

For me it's entirely complementary. I'm not that good at social bonds in the real world. I like people I know. But I'm shy of other people. This is a great way to know people without meeting them. And then you can move on to meeting them after you've established what you have in common.

Hope that helps. What does anyone else think?

Comments

[Susan]

Yesterday I was trying to envision how my role would work (independent researcher and consultant) and how I would spend my days if I was doing this before computers and the Internet became so pervasive. I'd probably be spending a lot more time interacting directly with people, not mediated by technology (except for the phone, of course).

And blogging in particular is like a performance with an unseen, unheard audience.

[Anne]

That's all really interesting. It partly explains why your blog is so good to read - because it reads like you thinking out loud. It never seems contrived like some do. And I think that's lovely to be called a friend, because I know what you mean, and would also have worried that it was sad. But writing a blog is a great way of finding like-minded people, some of whom would be very hard to pinpoint in the 'real' world. I've hardly told anyone about I like, I'm a bit shy about it, so am glad that people can find me if they're into something on it. Anyway, thanks for posting this. It'll be useful to see what the research comes up with.

[funkypancake (a virtual friend!)]

i'd go with all that !

ever think we just happened to stumble on the right technologies at the right time ? ours blog wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the internet (like durrr) and being able to access it at home, work and on the move, and digital cameras.

i see blogging as a way of showing people what's in my head. it's a bit like talking to myself (in a non mad way) i think.

i like your blog as i think we think in similar ways. but not exactly the same which means there's always something new to apply back to my own life.

or something profound like that

[I stumbled in here suddenly]

I think blogging allows one to peep into a very interesting part of a whole personality. The part which is usually censored or seldom revealed. Not everyone will write directly what they think, sometimes what a person mean to say is expressed through different codes and other expressions, this is what I find most interesting and most revealing, when nuggets of personality and what's usually hidden deep within a person sneaks out via the blog content. :D
oh hi!

[Jacob]

I'm not a blog expert but I guess your blog stands out because you seem to be able to explain complex matters in a very straightforward way. Since hearing you talk about planning and advertising in March 2004 I've returned to this place again and again. In the beginning I looked for advertising related stuff, but since you're so good at passing on all sorts of ideas and observations, I now read for fun. Very intelligent entertainment.

[russell]

Wow. Thanks Jacob, that's very kind of you.