Serving Bread

Every so often, I come across an article about netiquettes or the etiquettes of life online. The idea and value behind netiquettes is to highlight conventions of politeness when interacting (back in the day through usenet groups) online. As the internet has grown and “matured” to web 2.0–where anyone with a heartbeat can contribute to the virtual world without any knowledge of computers or experience–netiquettes seems to be losing ground.

When teenagers (or preteens for that matter) keep a MySpace page or a Xanga diary, netiquettes will inevitably be redefined or diluted from its original intentions. For example, one of the basic rules of netiquettes (as recorded on wikipedia) is “Think before you post”. I know I am guilty of responding to posts through comments or posting stuff that reveals I had a lapse of my thinking. Though I have no data to track this, it is probably safe to say that there is a lot of stuff out there that is–pardon my language–crap (and I am by no means not guilty of posting or responding to/with crap).

Since so many people enter the world of blogging every day, interacting on web 2.0 may be the new cross-cultural experience. I am not talking about interacting with someone half way around the world, but with someone across the street. It seems to me that people have different definitions of blogging and a different answer to the question, “Why blog?” Is a blog a sermon or a conversation? (I choose conversation). Are comments an interaction or an opportunity to be told ”you’re right!”? (I choose interaction). Are bloggers meant to be experts or learners? (I suppose it depends, but most write as if they are experts rather than as learners). Forget netiquettes (which is just a word and not really a guide anymore), what we need is to learn how to interact with one another cross-culturally. I have made plenty of mistakes in my interactions online because I misread the purpose of the post and the poster.

Blogging is fun (though to be honest, I’m still trying to figure out why I do it), but it lacks several things:

1. Bloggers are rarely experts (though most come across as that).
2. Bloggers should be learners and open to interaction and discussion
3. Blogging is kinda like a radio talk-show. When you call in, you are going into the lion’s den. You don’t debate, you just argue, and as the caller, you always lose because it’s not your show. (A true debate is when there is a moderator and a neutral facility)

If this post is crap–then I suppose I have to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to read my crap

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