September 29, 2004
web censorship
most of the people on this side of the world don't read my personal blog. yesterday was a bit of (behind-the-scenes) 'excitement' over there.
it seems that one of my friends had to have all their posts pulled down, off the site. not their choice and im not really able to discuss it over here, in public.
its an issue. it rears its head in different ways. this whole 'public vs private' that seems to be hitting me daily. yesterday it was more of a professional vs private life thing.
people are getting canned all the time over blogs. see this, just a couple of weeks ago. it makes no sense - fired for blogging about work - as a web developer. like the guy fired from microsoft last year for taking pictures of apple machines.
its becoming a real thing. that your job determines what you are allowed to put in public. (i think it was last month's 'playboy' (yes, i currently have a subscription, let's move on [see? another private vs public topic.]) that had a blurb about police officers getting in trouble for starring in online porn.)
so why bring all this up? why make a post, a hand wave over all this?
because my thesis is going to make this topic of blogs look like an anthill. when you can suddenly be incriminated because there exists records of your actions, what then?
big brother wont turn out to be the government. itll turn out to be my peer group. itll be will and kurt and todd and brinker and stephanie and my girlfriend and my sister and all the people close to me who disagree with variable x on how i lived my day. whether its the route i drive, the food i eat, the people i talk to - all this will be not only public, but then open to debate.
you want collective responsibility? this has the opportunity for it.
so far, ive been lucky. no where that i have been employed has had issues with my site. at this point, its so tied into who i am, what i do, that it would probably come first over a job. thats some serious stuff. and not everyone feels that way. and not everyone has that choice - most of these people have been fired/disciplined after the fact.
i didnt mean to go off on such a rant about this. but its a serious topic to consider, this whole 'public face/private face'. the legal, moral and socilogical implications of it arent to be downplayed. the facets of your life that will be affected are serious.
im ready to get fired for it.
excuse me while i go put on my camera.
Posted by tripp at September 29, 2004 10:17 AMComments
i find the issue intriguing myself and have certainly thought many times about the implications posting to a blog can create for a person professionally, academically and politically.
while i realize keeping an online diary is a personal choice, one does have to be aware that the world could potentially read it, save it, forward it, and god knows what else.
that's why i personally have issues with posting to a blog as well as the reason that i am always conscious that anything i say is forever archived in the minds/computers of whoever is reading.
Posted by: ashley at September 29, 2004 05:45 PM
but this is exactly where my frustration comes in. frustration and simply not being able to make my brain work that way - it just doesnt make sense to me.
it seems things fall into 2 main reasons why we have private issues:
1. because of work. this is absurd to me. i am hired to do a job. said job (most of the time) should have nothing to do with how i live my life outside of my job. if my job suffers as a result, i lose my job. i am not hired to be a robot. therefore, i shouldnt be expected to live and breath my job.
2. because of social understandings. this is also crap to me. i dont believe that most (again with the qualifier) quirks/feitishes/behaviors are that extreme. theres a reason people say theres a website for everything. so why do we have to feel ashamed for our behaviors?
it seems to me that both reasons help tear down this social stigamitism.
i understand what you are saying ashley, and perhaps its the safest/wisest course. but i dont believe that we should have to be on that path. i dont believe that the world should work like that.
i heard on stern as i pulled into school yesterday from a maxim calendar model or somesuch. and one of her 'points' was how she takes pics with her camera phone of her poop and sends it to friends.
gross, lame, whatever. if we all did it, think how poop would no longer be a big deal. perhaps a very bad example, but the first one i thought of.
blah.
stupid sociatal norms.
Posted by: tripp at September 29, 2004 10:53 PM
I guess my guess was right....
what a world we live in.....
Posted by: JVP at September 30, 2004 04:49 AM
