Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Watching
It seems to me that various new web-ways of keeping in touch operate differently from other communication channels that have become familiar. I'm thinking here of things like blogs, friendster pages, etc. -- broadcast-based systems which seem new to the world with the web -- not email and instant messaging, which are basically web-ifications of existing channels: physical mail and the telephone. I think the difference is one of type rather than degree. These are not extensions or efficiences of 'analog' modes, but a new type of communication. I don't actually know that they constitute communication at all. Or, at least, maybe viewing them doesn't.
Here's what I mean: even though blogs -- and friendster pages and the like -- provide ways for the viewer to communicate with the post-er (comments, eg.), visitors mainly experience the site voyeuristically. They get the quick thrill of an artificial closeness that comes from looking into people's lives without them looking back at you, even though the material is explicitly "presented" for others to look at. The best blogs make you feel like you're looking into someone else's life and private thoughts, maybe without their knowledge; this effect is increased when the post-er is someone you know well, when you can better infer them from the things they present. A few times, I 've gone to people's blogs or friendster pages with the idea of communictating with them -- maybe they're someone I no longer see a lot, someone I miss and I don't have a current email address for them. After looking around awhile, reading their posts, looking at pictures of them, reading lists of things they like, my need to see them is spent. I feel like I've spent some time with them. The thing is: I actually haven't communicated with them. They don't know I'm thinking about them. I haven't caused them to think about me. I haven't told them anything, or done anything we normally think of communication as accomplishing. No information has been transferred even though the desire to communicate has been sated.
Whoever said that in the blogosphere everyone will be famous for fifteeen people had it only part of the picture. What happens when we start to be 'famous" for our friends? When that uncanny voyeuristic co-existence of closeness and distance that so defines media celebrity imposes itself into our relationships with each other?
Here's what I mean: even though blogs -- and friendster pages and the like -- provide ways for the viewer to communicate with the post-er (comments, eg.), visitors mainly experience the site voyeuristically. They get the quick thrill of an artificial closeness that comes from looking into people's lives without them looking back at you, even though the material is explicitly "presented" for others to look at. The best blogs make you feel like you're looking into someone else's life and private thoughts, maybe without their knowledge; this effect is increased when the post-er is someone you know well, when you can better infer them from the things they present. A few times, I 've gone to people's blogs or friendster pages with the idea of communictating with them -- maybe they're someone I no longer see a lot, someone I miss and I don't have a current email address for them. After looking around awhile, reading their posts, looking at pictures of them, reading lists of things they like, my need to see them is spent. I feel like I've spent some time with them. The thing is: I actually haven't communicated with them. They don't know I'm thinking about them. I haven't caused them to think about me. I haven't told them anything, or done anything we normally think of communication as accomplishing. No information has been transferred even though the desire to communicate has been sated.
Whoever said that in the blogosphere everyone will be famous for fifteeen people had it only part of the picture. What happens when we start to be 'famous" for our friends? When that uncanny voyeuristic co-existence of closeness and distance that so defines media celebrity imposes itself into our relationships with each other?
# posted by Greg @ 10:46 PM 
