Contextual Biographies - Part 1
Still on my roll about voice and identity as we interact online...
I was catching up with Jeanne Sessum's blog this morning and saw her pointer to a page on Melanie McBride's blog, Chandrasutra. Melanie offers her readers some context about her and her blog.
In discussions this past week with Lilia and others, we kept surfacing this theme about how we have gotten to know people by repeated exposure to their thinking through their writings (in online spaces, blogs, etc.) One read -- you get an idea. Many reads, you get a sense of that person. Peel the onion (or any other handful of related metaphors.)
Yet another reason we let people we've never met F2F stay in our homes, as well.
Lack of context may also be why we skip or ignore the voices of others. We have no thread of connection to enable us to reach beyond our "familiar." I think following links in trusted blogs, step by step, sometimes offers us that thread to places we would otherwise never go.
KM, voice, identity, RSS, comments, mycomments
posted by Nancy White at 12:22 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for the citation. My main reason for the context is that I've been incorrectly contextualised. And I've discovered that I've, personally, got nothing to lose by saying what I am and what I am not. People can, of course, decide for themselves but if my context makes it easier for me to attract readers with similar interests and questions. I'm not saying I want an echo chamber but I also don't want to attempt to create a space that attempts to speak to "all sides". I abhore conservative and republican politics, for example, so I'm not ever planning on speaking for or with that audience. I also deplore consumer-centric attitudes and don't ever plan on writing for people who like to hear about or write about their "stuff"... there are plenty of blogs already for that. I don't speak for everyone. Just me. So it's valuable for me to be transparent about who that "me" is ... :-)
Mel, thanks. In your last sentence, you use the word "transparent." I'm comfortable with being transparent. What is less familiar with me is the act of shielding and creating a persona or other ways of masking. There are times when anonymity is a writer's goal.
That got me thinking about why we choose something along the range of transparency and masking?
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