The problem with blogs (if there was only one).

written by Julie R. Neidlinger      4 comments      link this post     


Blogs, true blogs which, in my belief, allow comments and discussion, are basically circles of words. All we have to go on, when reading a blog, are the words in front of us.

Some writers try to convey tone through smiley faces or punctuation, but this really doesn't work. A smiley face can be taken as a smirk if the words preceding them are interpreted negatively. Too many commas might change the tone. Some writers use caveats to excess in order to head off any chance for offending a reader. Some writers back-peddle as much as move forward, leaving the reader feeling a bit Clintonian from the writer's effort to understand all sides at once to all degrees. Sarcasm is common (sadly, and I admit to it, too), but being common doesn't make it any less tricky. It is difficult to tell if something is sarcasm or if what's written is being played straight. All capital letters, excess exclamation points, consistently poor spelling, lack of paragraphs, analogies that fall flat or aren't recognized by readers -- all of this can color what the writer is trying to say.

Conveying the intended message takes great skill because there is more to consider than just word selection and spelling. Getting across the correct tone is just as vital to the message. Tone is, essentially, the "words behind the words."

Unfortunately, tone is nearly impossible to convey on a blog, particularly when things get "personal" and there are many voices and personalities -- with different communication skills and agendas -- joining in on the conversation through a blog's comments section. It's a crazy cacophony of noise and thought and free associations. Blogs with comments sections, in particular, are confusing because it is natural to associate the comments with the blog owner since the comments were allowed in the first place. This colors the reader's view, too.

I can think of no better example than this recent post of mine, and the ensuing comments both on my blog and the blog in question (read the comments towards the end, in particular). In this case, as if often inevitable, defenders of the supposedly impugned use the defense "you don't know him like I do, and you're wrong in your interpretation and you're also this, this and this!"

Maybe true, maybe not. All I have to go on are the words on the screen. I know that this happens to me when I am the reader and not the writer. I don't think a person who really knows me would say the things about me that others who don't know me have said. Such is how it is with blogs. All you have are the words in front of you.

You can't infer inflection, gestures, expression, or tone. I can't write a blog like a drama script to better flesh out the mood and help your understanding. The one thing a reader can do -- what I do -- to better understand where a blogger may be coming from is to read more than the post at hand, or read more than the posts that are part of a "collection" of similarly themed posts.

Before I leave a comment on a blog I've never been to, or write about a blog post, I've found it a good practice to go to the main page of the blog and read a large selection of unrelated, recent posts. I often get a better picture of the writer and start to pick up on writing tics or habits that lead me to interpret his or her writing better. The times I haven't and have just fired off a comment or blog reference are always a mistake. (Case in point: read the bottom two comments of this post.)

In short, it is important to put a blog and blogger in context (unless you only want ammunition for an argument and want to use something out of context). Extremely skilled writers (which I am not) would make this unnecessary but the blogosphere is filled with all kinds of writers, many of whom are average, like me.

This is not the practice, this search for context, that all readers take. Some use the valid excuse of time as the reason for not doing so. I can tell, by looking at my stat counters, which comments are left by people who did or did not do this. I can also tell this by looking at the strange summations in the comments. I've been told to get a life, that I'm narrow-minded, that I'm liberal, that I'm conservative -- really, it's strange.

Without context, one blog post or comment I leave cannot possibly sum me up accurately. I need to keep this in mind for blogs and writers I haven't become familiar with yet.

If you don't like this blog, don't like what I say, or don't like me, here are a couple of things to consider:

1. You could parody this blog. Go buy lonelyprairie.net or lonerprairie.net or whatever you'd like. Write posts about what you don't like about me, my blog, my opinions, and whatever else. I certainly won't cease and desist on my blog because I don't care. It's a free world. I might even get a laugh.
   


2. If you don't want to leave a comment or feel you're just not getting the air time here at Lone Prairie that you deserve, due to my comprehensive Blog EULA (which I rarely enforce), go start your own blog. Really. I encourage you to do it. Build up your own readership through hard work and original posting, get the discussion going, and you're all set. You can even lift my RSS feed and fisk my blog, whether or not I like fisking.


3. If I put it on the Internet, I certainly can't then pretend to be able to control how people react and respond to it, though I may visit your blog and offer an explanation for what I see is a wrong conclusion. "Methinks the lady doth protest too much" is something I often hear. True, maybe, or not. I see no reason not to provide an accurate explanation for any claims or charges laid at my door. It is nonsensical to start a discussion and then say a person protests too much for actively taking part in the discussion.
   


4. I'm actually a pretty nice person. I'm not perfect, same as you. Read more on this and my other blogs before coming to your final decision on me and my writing. I offer you the same courtesy if you have your own blog.What you can't do is send me personal emails that are just rude. I mean really; what is that all about, anyway? That's just ridiculous.
   

So what is the problem with blogs, at least for this post? It is a problem of context, a problem of interpretation. There is no solution.

Labels: blogging, writing

Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger  1/11/2007 11:58:00 AM   (4) comments   Links to this post    

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed.    Help support this site.   Facebook | Stumble It! | Del.icio.us | DiggIt! | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | Newsvine

>> JOIN THIS SITE

THE WHITEBOARD
(v 2.0)

Content, design and imagery © Julie R. Neidlinger. All rights reserved. Please read the blog End User License Agreement (EULA).
All work by Julie R. Neidlinger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

HOME | CONTACT | HELP | SEARCH