Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
No, it's TransparentMan!
More candid than a tell-all memoir. More self-revelatory than an over-the-hill celebrity. More embarrassing details than the family of a vice presidential candidate. Bends commonsense rules of appropriateness with his bare hands. Leaps tall barriers of good taste in a single bound.
And who, disguised as Sven Golly, mild-mannered production editor for a great big publishing conglomerate, fights a never-ending struggle for truth, justice, and better coffee.
"Olson, what's this personal information all over some dunderhead's blog? Nobody wants to hear about his innermost philosophical musings while navel-gazing on an otherwise boring weekend. I've got a newspaper to run."
"I'll get right on it, chief."
"And don't call me chief!"
More to the point, blogging enables TransparentMan to put himself out there in Gotham City, central Swingstate, and the world wide web. But is he prepared to see what it looks like out there? And is the population of G.C., C.S. and the www interested in seeing what TransparentMan puts out there?
'Out there' is a two-way street where intrepid reporter-about-town Lois Lane can see more aspects of more people, and in turn more people can see more aspects of Lois Lane, than if she stayed home and read a book. Once she decides to be out there, every Lois must decide how out-there to be. Facebook, even more than Blogger, invites participants to be - discreetly and selectively or not - both voyeurs and exhibitionists.
Voyeur and exhibitionist at the same time? How is that possible? And isn't that just a little creepy? Surely I'm not treading new ground here (and don't call me Shirley). It's common knowledge that adults use business discourse at work and family discourse at home, playing one language game in school or church and another language game in the gym or the corner bar, with a certain amount of overlap. Public discourse belongs in some settings and private discourse in others. Don't be an idiot. Keep an eye on the boundaries if you want to play the game, okay?
It's also true that you gotta go out on the field if you wanna play the game. If online social networking is the game, then playing can be either more voyeuristic, observing others without being observed, or more exhibitionistic, being observed more than observing. Whatever floats your boat. But like any yin and yang combo, there is a little of the opposite in each.
"Jeepers, TransparentMan, are you telling me that every online networking voyeur is a closet exhibitionist?"
"That's right, Jimmy, and vice versa."
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4 comments:
Said better than mine.
And much more interestingly conceived also.
At least take credit for providing the inspiration, David. Sheesh!
sorry . . . but I'll be sorry NO MORE!!!
A very timely post. I just chickened out over at rural fetish, thinking I was going over my own line. It's a funny thing, this blogging. No one has to know any of this stuff. Some tell a little, others tell a lot, but I'm interested if there's honesty in the telling. I don't know why I'm interested, or why I don't just type this into a private word doc and save myself from potentially sticky situations or judgment, but there's something to be said for getting it out there. I'm no artist, but isn't the public expression of how we view the world and get through life the whole point of artistic expression? And that's seen as noble and important.Or it could just be that people put it out there because they have to put it out there. Either way. It's late.
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