Hi everybody :)
My name is Laura and I am in the midst of a double degree in Law and Arts. I actually love reading blogs and I also use twitter. I even have a blog of my own. It's fun!
My favourite blog is Sarah Wilson. Sarah was the host of Masterchef Season 1, and now makes her living as a writer/blogger/tv host/producer... etc. She writes about how to make life better. In her own words, she is "on a mission to find ways to make life bigger, more meaningful, nicer, smarter, heartier." She talks to people like Seth Gobin, Mitch Albom, Edward de Bono, Gretchen Rubin and the Dalai Lama and, basically, just has a fresh take on things. I like her a lot.
Another link I'd like to share is Peggy Orenstein's New York Times article: I Tweet, Therefore I Am. It will most likely only resonate with people who use twitter, or update their Facebook status regularly, but it's a great read. Peggy pinpoints the psyche behind sharing ourselves (or part thereof) via these new digital mediums, describing it as an "unnatural self-consciousness: processing my experience instantaneously, packaging life as I lived it." She also explores the way social media can reconstruct identity, "blurring the lines not only between public and private but also between the authentic and contrived self." I am really fascinated by the the way the internet can reshape the evolution of a "sense of self", and it is where my interest lies with respect to this unit.
I will be presenting this week, on the article Posting with passion: blogs and the politics of gender (Melissa Gregg). I will post an outline of the article and some points to think about later tonight, which I have gathered that I am supposed to do in preparation for Wednesday's tutorial.
So, thank you for reading... I will see you all on Wednesday :)
"I quickly mastered the Twitterati’s unnatural self-consciousness: processing my experience instantaneously, packaging life as I lived it." Thanks, I enjoyed the article. This quote made me think of the idea that the print revolution in Europe started a new form of more personal consciousness in the 1500s, whereby people started thinking of their own narrative, and contrasting it with others rather than seeing themselves as part of a repeating/communal/eternal life. I think idea comes from Elizabeth Eisenstein in her book "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" and I have probably butchered it.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it!
That is a really interesting comparison. I suppose the distinction you could draw between the 16th century print revolution and the dawn of the internet is the extent of connectivity we have now... Online "personal consciousness" is not so much personal as public, and the "packaging" of life into microcontent, e.g. through twitter, is done self-consciously in an attempt to simultaneously represent us, as unique beings, as well as impress or please mass "followers".
So perhaps the creation of an online identity is not so much a process of "self-discovery" as the fine-tuning of calculated techniques used to entice readers or fans, whether the writer is aware of it or not. That may be an overly cynical way of looking at things, though!