Comments on: living online

By: Kaija

Kaija — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:19:22 +0000

Yeah, sounds like the modern/tech version of “women gossip, men have conversations.” Honestly, people who blog too much/in too much detail about their personal lives simply bore everyone to sleep. The Gould/Stein dueling pieces are just a little sad…like listening to a passing acquaintance recite their list of grievances against an ex. But I too worry that women get treated more harshly in this situation. Narcissism is still a big part of male privilege.

By: bookyloo

bookyloo — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:42:24 +0000

I couldn’t make myself read that whole article, I skimmed it. I’ve never heard of any of the people involved. I’ve only read Gawker very occasionally. I could not possibly care less about the relationship problems of highly paid twentysomething manhattanites. Being only a casual blogosphere observer I’ve been often mystified by the little intricacies of the Very Important Firestorms that crop up once a week. I see that the New York Times Magazine has published an 8000 (!!!)-word article about a privileged young person agonizing over the difficulties of having a high profile, high paying profession, and I fire up my Tiny Violin. I’d feel the same if it was a famous lawyer, or politician, or TV star, or whatever.

WHY WHY WHY am I supposed to care about this? When 4,000-odd American military personnel have been sent to the slaughter in the last few years, many of them because they had no other job prospects? When many people are losing their homes to foreclosure and can’t afford gas or health insurance? These kids and their Blog Agony is at the rock-bottom of my list of things I worry about right now.

oh and I don’t think the “oversharing” is gendered. It happens aaaallll over the internet, and the difference between oversharing and blogging is this: An “over-sharer” is someone who writes a blog that you follow like you rubberneck at a bad car crash, hoping for flames and fireworks and chairs thrown Jerry Springer style. A good blogger is someone you follow because their writing is good and you enjoy their opinions and perspectives. That line, I guess, is different for every reader; and not unlike pornography you know it when you see it.

By: libby

libby — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:44:52 +0000

after reading your post and gould’s article (and after almost getting fired for blogging a couple of times, back in the porn days), my original ‘to blog or not to blog’ convictions are reinforced. it’s important for anyone writing anything, anywhere on the internet, to make sure the content is going to be worthwhile, or worth the time and trouble – especially for the writer. i think the ‘is this truly worthwhile’ thing is a good litmus test when delving into sensitive topics in any online capacity.

there are good reasons why some thing are still private. sharing too much, in any context, can be annoying, mean and obnoxious.

but i really like the title of this post. it helps add value to the blogging medium, and hopefully helps to encourage people to not publish crappy or foolish content.

as articles like this make big-audience impacts, it will be interesting to see how blogging changes over the decades. i’m hoping the medium will keep improving, since worthwhile blogs are really, really hard to find.

By: Postmodern Sexgeek

Postmodern Sexgeek — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:15:31 +0000

“men blog; women overshare”.

Yeah, I’ve seen that double standard and have censored myself because of it. Meh. It irritates me to realize that as it does to realize that I have had similar thoughts about othr women. Needless to say it gives me much food for thought.