Hi everybody! :-)
I'm Alison Wollenberg, a junior Communication major and Aem minor. I do a lot around campus and usually find myself overextending my time and thinking I shouldn't have signed up for "just this one last thing to squeeze into my schedule.." I am the new chair of marketing for Hillel, I'm social and marshall for my sorority, I'm an AEM ambassador and a Communication peer Advisor. I'm looking into getting a job on campus, although I have no time, and I have just become a TA for another Comm class. I feel there is more that I can't think of right now...but that already seems like a lot as it is, lol. I like to be enthusiastic about everything I do and you will notice I use emoticons and ! marks wayyyy to much. I have been interested in marketing for a long time but now have developed an interest in product positioning and brand management. However, I love being involved with Cornell's communication and aem department, because I am really passionate about how the media influences people, the psychology of persuasion, how leaders can become so powerful and influential etc. My number one interest is with children and how the media affects them/influences their personality growth. Luckily, many courses in these departments have courses relating to this. Yay Cornell! :-)
Anyways, I have always been fascinated by Blogs themselves and how much people love reading them.I myself don't really read blogs (although I know Prof. Hancock says everyone does without meaning to), unlike many of my friends who are addicted to PerezHilton.com. I think the reason I don't read these things is because I know I'll be addicted to them instantly; I'll spend hours reading up on every post and becoming absorbed in someones life. Obviously, as can be seen by the popularity of blogs, many people are prone to this same behavior. I find it interesting how someone may stumble across someone's blog and without having any prior knowledge of the person, can suddenly be absorbed in their world and continually come back to read up on recent news. For example, I've never really been into the MySpace scene, but the few times I have read people's pages, I've found myself looking through their friends. Suddenly, "bikrdudets" friend's friend's friend, "lcrossplyr" has taken my interest. And just because his page has awesome music and he has some of the same interests as me I'll be reading every single post from the last year. "OMG! HE CHILLED AT DUNKIN DONUTS 2 WEEKS AGO!! NO WAY!!! II LLOOOVEEE DUNKIN DONUTS!!" Just reading this class blog was fun and I soaked in every bit of information about you guys, wanting to make small comments here and there about your daily lives that you mentioned.
So yea, I talk a lot and ramble a lot and often make my points not very lucid. So to summarize, I feel like a lot of people like reading up on other people's lives, and I have no idea why. You may not know them, and they may have quite a boring life, yet if they describe it in a humorous way and use witty remarks, I'll want to be reading up on every minute of their life. This also is true for sites like PostSecret.com. I love reading people's emo-esque mysterious messages, and wondering what that person is doing right now or if they really are that depressed. Wallace mentioned that the internet is a time sink, and there may be links to increased loneliness and depression. Do people's blogs perhaps make people feel more lonely? Does it cause people to think, 'wow this person's life is so much more exciting than mine" and thus try to live vicariously through them? Does it influence them to try to have a more exciting life since that appears to be the norm? Why DO these people continuously go back and read up about people they don't know, or need to know what that B-list celebrity did this weekend!?
I think a few of Wallace's online spaces can be used to define blogs. They are certainly under "world wide web" because they are a self-publishing device and people can bookmark sites. However, blogs can also be described as asynchronous discussion forums, since some blogs can have many different people responding to one another. Wallace mentioned how discussions on single topics can go on for days or weeks, and it reminded me of a blog I once read where two people were having an indepth conversation with each other in the comments section of a blog. Facebook wasn't around in 1999, but I think Wallace would definitely have mentioned it today. Especially since people love reading other people's profiles and walls, even though they don't even know them. So hopefully throughout this class we will learn what it is that compels people to read blogs feel a desire to learn about the mundane lives of strangers. And on that note, I am off to read Postsecret.com because now I'm craving to read about some stranger's secrets. Ciao!
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2 comments:
Would I say that I am an avid reader of celebrity magazines? Probably not, but I can absolutely say that I wanted to know why Paris Hilton was released from jail after four days, then returned just a few days after. I think that you made a very interesting comparison between obsessing over celebrity status and needing to know every detail of a strangers’ life that he or she posted on a blog. I had always thought about celebrity mania as wanting to feel like part of this glamorous lifestyle and escape from our own lives, however boring or exciting they may be. Now, if we say that we are just as interested in a stranger’s life that has never made a film or movie, how does that fit into the reasoning for consuming our lives with celebrity information?
I also agree with you that reading about the extravagant lives of others has the ability to make us more wary of our own happiness, but it also seems to only make us want more. However, why do we care about those who are not only strangers, but also whom have lives no more exciting than our own? Why do we care? Facebook, Myspace, and other internet sites make it so easy to follow the details of another’s life. Yet, before these sites existed, it would never have crossed my mind to see or even care what “Jamie” did last night.
I agree that it can sometimes seem bizzare to be facinated with someone else's personal life enough to read that person's blog on a daily basis. However, not all blogs' are people's discussions about themselves. Some blogs are simply a person's opinions on issues that other people find interesting.
While I do find it somewhat bizzare to know what a stranger had for breakfast, someone's opinion on the Michael Vick dog-fighting issue could be interesting to read.
I rarely read blogs but sometimes it is refreshing and enlightening to read someone's elses opinion on an issue and be able to discuss that person's opinion in an asynchronous forum.
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