Blogging: The Public Lie
I've discovered something about blogs that I'm contemplating writing a paper on.
Blogs are not free speech.
I'm not going to blog that my boss sux if I want to keep my job. I'm not going to blog that my authoritarian government needs to be brought down if I want to keep what little freedoms I have left. I'm not going to blog that my sister is the most awful person in my life if I have to see her every Thanksgiving.
Erving Goffman, in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, talks about the many faces we wear all the time. The blog is a public face. The blog is the equivalent of what the President of the United States says on TV from a prepared speech that has been picked over by many writers and editors.
The blog is propaganda, not Truth.
Blogs are not free speech.
I'm not going to blog that my boss sux if I want to keep my job. I'm not going to blog that my authoritarian government needs to be brought down if I want to keep what little freedoms I have left. I'm not going to blog that my sister is the most awful person in my life if I have to see her every Thanksgiving.
Erving Goffman, in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, talks about the many faces we wear all the time. The blog is a public face. The blog is the equivalent of what the President of the United States says on TV from a prepared speech that has been picked over by many writers and editors.
The blog is propaganda, not Truth.
posted by Paul B. Hartzog at
9:21 AM
1 Comments:
Yes, it's free speech. It's the consequences that aren't.
-A
By
Wardo, at 2:22 PM
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