I enjoy blogging so much more than Facebook or other forms of modern communication. I know I don't update my own blog nearly enough, but I enjoy checking up on the blogs I follow--my friends, family, and even some strangers whom I have come to regard as friends. Blogs are like a secret window into someone's life, and a well crafted blog is thought-provoking and engaging, like a good novel. I'll admit, there is a degree of voyeurism and hyper-reality to the culture--many people write about this or that outfit, makeup, interior decorating, crafting, or party planning--but behind all of that is a narrative arc that to me is completely sincere. I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way, but explaining it to someone who is not familiar with the culture is very difficult.
My book club just read the book The Most Human Human by Brian Christian. I highly recommend it! It is all about the author's endeavor to win the most "Human Human" award in the Turing Test: A test where a judge will chat for five minutes with a human "confederate" and an AI chatbot and afterwards guess which is which. The most "Human Human" award goes to the confederate who was able to convince the most judges that he was a human. The book got all of us thinking about what it means to be human when computers and AI are becoming increasingly complex.
I brought up my blogging "hobby" and one of my friends jokingly (but a little not) asked how I know the people who write these blogs are who they say they are. "I know a Nigerian prince who could use some money..." she teased. She has a point, and I was horrified and enthralled by the documentary Catfish (Watch it! I won't give away anything here). It would be very difficult for a chatbot to maintain a sophisticated blog... but a very bored human could exaggerate the details of his or her life or fabricate something entirely. But I've never mistrusted the blogging community...at least not the ones that I read.
What do you think? Do you have a similar relationship to the blogs you read? Have you ever doubted an author's sincerity? Do I live in a gullible la la land?
My husband's cousin writes a blog and if you read it you would swear that she has a perfect, perfect, perfect life when in reality her husband is really controlling and emotionally abusive and she battles anorexia. Pretty different from the picture she paints on the blog. I bet there are a LOT of people like that, writing a prettied up exaggeration of their lives.
ReplyDeleteOf course, then there are people like me who are almost as retarded in real life as they are on the blog...
I think Camille is right, you get a mix. But I think you get the same kind of mix in real life too. Some people act like life is perfect, some overshare weird stuff and most people are somewhere in the middle. "normal"
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think that "narrative arc" says just as much about us as anything else. What we choose to present to the world at large is a window on who we "really" are. And I have yet to be disappointed in real life when I meet the friends I made through blog stuff. Maybe a bit surprised but in a good way. Thanks for an interesting post. Made me think.
Catfish was crazy! Such a fascinating movie.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel the same way about the blogs I read. I actually have several real live friends who started out as blogs I read, and I have found them to be just as genuine as their blogs. But perhaps my experience has been kind of unique?
Love reading your posts
ReplyDeleteDad
When scanning blogs, there's always that quest at the back of my head to look for people who share the same values as I. To find that there are quite a couple out there is always a pleasant surprise, and blogs are also a great platform to meet people and learn from them. They're quite a limitless resource for new and provoking ideas!
ReplyDeleteWhen scanning blogs, there's always that quest at the back of my head to look for people who share the same values as I. To find that there are quite a couple out there is always a pleasant surprise, and blogs are also a great platform to meet people and learn from them. They're quite a limitless resource for new and provoking ideas!
ReplyDelete