How do blogs create or express community? Do we consider our identities as fixed prior to our entrance into the blogosphere? Or does our interaction there construct a new identity? Do we join blogging communities based upon previous interests, or discover new possibilities for community and interaction by exploring blogs? Are these communities “real”? Why or why not? What purposes do they serve for us or for others?
5.01.2007
It takes a village...?
How do blogs create or express community? Do we consider our identities as fixed prior to our entrance into the blogosphere? Or does our interaction there construct a new identity? Do we join blogging communities based upon previous interests, or discover new possibilities for community and interaction by exploring blogs? Are these communities “real”? Why or why not? What purposes do they serve for us or for others?
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8 comments:
I'm not sure how blogs express community. It really depends on the blog and the blog genre. Can a batch of readers be considered a community? Or can a bunch of readers of a Star Wars blog be considered a smaller part of a community that just happens to interact with this part of the blogoverse? These are the questions I lack answers to, as you can see.
But I think these communities or subcommunities are very real. I don't think you can discredit a group of people as a community just because there's no face to face interaction (or there's minimal amounts of it), or because they just interact via the internet. Hacker communities exist. Chat room communities exist, and they all exist on the internet because that's where they focus. The blogoverse is a community as a whole, maybe, existing on the internet because without the internet they're just a bunch of writers with nowhere to publish their stuff.
I'm officially sold on the term "blogoverse." Vastly superior term.
This is a very interesting issue to explore. I think that people have interests that they hope to express on the internet. I am interested in knitting, thus I like to look for communities of knitters online, people with whom I can share my passion. I may create a space for myself within this wider space of the internet, or even within a webring, but I am still myself, and committed to what I am commmitted to offline.
Do we ever consider our identities fixed? The question of who we are is a complicated one. Blogs help people explore who they are – even in the very act of obscuring and/or creating new personas. In a way, I think blogs are a functional thing. They give one a community. They help link up like-interests. They provide information and entertainment. We blog because we want something – to create and/or express, whatever. The communities people make are real no matter what forum they’re in; the physical or the electronic. It’s the act of creation that calls for existence. "Real" though can be considered different from "existing" though.
I think that some aspects of our identities become fixed, but our interests, beliefs, ideologies, etc., etc. change throughout. I agree with Nicole that we enter the realm of the internet with our interests in mind. Sometimes, we get introduced to new things that then become a part of our interests, but usually we stick to what we enjoy. But in terms of community in the blogosphere/verse, I would have to agree with Madison. It depends on the blog, the blogger, and the blog genre. People often form communities around common interests, so a blog that connects people this way definitely represents a portal to a community.
Sorry to hijack this but I have a BIG BLOG DRAMA ANNOUNCEMENT FOR TUESDAY, BE THERE, IT WILL GET AWKWARD HOLLA
Dying. To. Hear. Drama.
A blog community is largely defined by the tone set by the writer, and also by the tone of its regular commenters. Often, it is the tone, more than the content of the blog, which determines whether I want to continue reading it. If the writing is very formal, or loaded with bitter sarcasm, or written carelessly and with a lot of abbreviations, it all makes a difference on how it is perceived by individual readers.
I think that as a blog browser, our identities are pretty much fixed. In the outside world, a friend can talk to you face-to-face and convince you to try something new. But on the internet, this rarely happens, so we stick to what interests us.
Still, it is certainly possible that over time, a blogger or other online writer can convince someone, through the power of words, to at least experience something which they may not have thought interesting.
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