Tic tic tic tic tic tic tic... WHOOPS!
There is one aspect about writing for the Internet that doesn't really bother me, but does keep me a little more aware.
It's all so fast. Right now I don't have to type on a word processor, but a little box on a web page. Most people I'd wager don't sit back, look at their blog entries and go, "Well, I'll sleep on it then punch it in." Instead after a short period of keyboard clicks they compulsively grab the mouse and click the "Send" button.
It's the same problem with e-mail. Before you look over what you've written, it's already half way across the world in the inbox of the recipient. It brings the quality of writing down a little bit, but there is an advantage to this type of scenario. People have reached a subconscious understanding, or will, I hope, that this is much more like a conversation than we realized.
Because of the speed of the Internet, people move so quick to get their post or their comment up that they don't sit back and say, "Do I really mean that? Is that really what I want to say?" but instead just throw it out there and let the chips fall where they may.
Unfortunately this has some downsides. The Internet is also a place where you can be relatively anonymous, and, even when you're not, you don't have to speak face to face. Stroll through a few Internet forums and you'll find a range of people saying some rather insensitive things, all the way down to people throwing hastily written and misspelled expletives back and forth like snowballs.
There is so much space and so much opportunity to print that people toss out ideas, comments and opinions out like candy. The plus: we act more like a conversation, more like journalism should be - a participatory flow of communication in which the reader is involved. The downside: People often don't realize, even though their words are just a drop in the vast bucket that is the Internet, that their words are printed like graffiti on a wall that does not quickly go away.
You think because it's electronic it just gets deleted, but it's amazing what you'll find online if you search deeply enough. Bloggers and forum users won’t change how they currently act, I imagine. But if Steve Outing's prediction in his article What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists, that people may be held accountable in the justice system for their actions, I suspect we'll see a little more cautious conversation in the future.
It's all so fast. Right now I don't have to type on a word processor, but a little box on a web page. Most people I'd wager don't sit back, look at their blog entries and go, "Well, I'll sleep on it then punch it in." Instead after a short period of keyboard clicks they compulsively grab the mouse and click the "Send" button.
It's the same problem with e-mail. Before you look over what you've written, it's already half way across the world in the inbox of the recipient. It brings the quality of writing down a little bit, but there is an advantage to this type of scenario. People have reached a subconscious understanding, or will, I hope, that this is much more like a conversation than we realized.
Because of the speed of the Internet, people move so quick to get their post or their comment up that they don't sit back and say, "Do I really mean that? Is that really what I want to say?" but instead just throw it out there and let the chips fall where they may.
Unfortunately this has some downsides. The Internet is also a place where you can be relatively anonymous, and, even when you're not, you don't have to speak face to face. Stroll through a few Internet forums and you'll find a range of people saying some rather insensitive things, all the way down to people throwing hastily written and misspelled expletives back and forth like snowballs.
There is so much space and so much opportunity to print that people toss out ideas, comments and opinions out like candy. The plus: we act more like a conversation, more like journalism should be - a participatory flow of communication in which the reader is involved. The downside: People often don't realize, even though their words are just a drop in the vast bucket that is the Internet, that their words are printed like graffiti on a wall that does not quickly go away.
You think because it's electronic it just gets deleted, but it's amazing what you'll find online if you search deeply enough. Bloggers and forum users won’t change how they currently act, I imagine. But if Steve Outing's prediction in his article What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists, that people may be held accountable in the justice system for their actions, I suspect we'll see a little more cautious conversation in the future.
posted by Aaron Burkhalter at
2:11 PM
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