Blogs. You're staring at one now. A medium to convey messages and this time, my post is imbued with Mena Trott's thoughts in her TED video. She's one of the early pioneers of the blogosphere and did so by starting up Move Apart, the company which has produced online blog portals like Live Journal, Typepad and Vox. As she updated her personal blog regularly, she began to comprehend the intangible benefits of possessing a blog. It opens a window to the world of others to share your pains and joys with strangers who may in fact, alleviate your suffering. This may seem strange because not many desire the attention of unknown beings who prowl the pages of his/her blog (and that includes me). Yet, people find it cathartic to reveal their stories on the internet for others to see. Indeed, it sounds contradictory altogether but the truth is that while bloggers feel uncomfortable with anonymous visitors, they actually have an even deeper desire to share their story. And that in some way, negates that xenophobic feeling. Trott encouraged people to consider blogging as the more personal we make our blog, the more we realise how friendly people and communities are around us. As Teszler (some noble hungarian guy from another TED talk), once said - "people are fundamentally good." In letting others know a part of our lives, we receive the understanding of the the inherent goodness in others. The care that netizens shower you with when they see you in your emo-state or it may be the patience they render after viewing posts of tantrums. I can testify how blogs sharpen my awareness of my peers' emotional condition and it always gives them comfort when others express concern. Those marvellous benefits of the social revolution in the media.
Then you may question, why is this blog so impersonal and so intellectual wannabe? You may even pop this "Why don't you start making your blog even more interesting by typing all about your life?" I established this blog in February and at that point of time, i decided that if i were to creat one, it would be for the sole purpose of improving my general paper skills (and my "A" level paper happens to be tomorrow), no more, no less. Next, as much as Trott spoke truth in her speech, experience has told me enough not to act on her words. She may have some form of motive by encouraging people to blog but i shan't read too much into that. Instead, she chose not to fully address the possible negative repercussions of personal blogs. Often times, people, especially strangers, gather misleading pictures from blog posts. For example, some person could be perfectly level-headed but upon chancing his/her blog you may wonder why that person is so volatile and angsty with all those vulgarities typed out clearly for the world wide web to see. Yes, Trott did speak of her own personal experience, however, i don't think she realised that this problem is highly prevalent in blogging communities. Written words can be deceiving and they become even more dangerous when the rest of the world misinterpret them.
I'm becoming more cautious of online social networking sites as well. Yesterday there was a straits times article in which the reporter delved into the implications of recent facebook murders. Behind all of these incidents, a key lesson to learn is never to hang your dirty linen, even in subtle ways. For instance, I don't believe that one should publicly declare one's relationship status all the time as any changes can lead to unnecessary consequences (not muder i hope). Nonetheless, all of this is subject to one's opinion.
This new age media can be really frightening. So here's a Word of advice: always be clear of what information to censor if not... caveat auctor (author).
(Oh, wish me luck for GP tomorrow!)
