Blog Narcissism

"His entire blog was all about him, him, him, and how we can get more of him... a one largely arrogant man."

-K. in S.A.

I’ve been talking a lot about blogs lately. I talk about them while sharing taxis, while mingling at the S., while playing pool, while eating lunch at the faculty table, and even by I. Lake, where the gals and I lounged last sunny Sunday afternoon. I’m just like my dad: when I get excited about something, I just can’t shut up.

When M. said that he felt that blogs were a bit self-involved, I had to agree. But then I felt a bit defensive: I’m a blogger, so perhaps I’m more self-involved than I’d like to admit. An email from K. says that one of the blog links I sent her was written by “one largely arrogant man. His entire page is all about him, him, him, and how we can get more of him.” Al thinks that C’s blog is simply a public and permanent proof of how neurotic she is.

Then, there are the parent blogs, which are getting big coverage in the media. You really must check out the New York Times article on "mommy blogs" and Culture Cat who addresses the issue of gender and women in the blogosphere in "Response to Mommy (and Me)"

I have more to say on the subject, but I really can't be bothered.

I have much more fun writing about ME! ME! ME!

Comments

[Datta]

I say, if ya can't be narcissistic in the blogosphere who can ya be narcissitic with?

[shamash]

I'm with ya, chica. People can be narcissistic to your face, and you have to find a polite or not-so-polite way to get out of there fast. Then there's email, where people send you those stupid forwarded messages, which you have read and delete, or just click "delete": very annoying. But, in the blogosphere, we can choose to "just not go there" and refuse to visit someone's self-absorbed blog.

Everyone's happy. The blogger feels better for having ranted, and the rest of us can choose whether or not to "listen."

[Victim of Culture?]

How interesting that such a critical review comes out of today's culture. After all, blogs are just the next step in a world that seems to be obsessed with voyeurism.

In a time that the media is continually streaming images of other people's lives, why shouldn't someone's blog be all about themselves? We constantly want to see what someone ELSE is doing rather than pay attention to our own lives. Just look at the ratings for TV shows over the last 10 years, voyeurism is doing quite well.

Aren't blogs just about us anyways? If a person is so disinterested in their own life as to go out and read the daily diatribes of someone else, shouldn't the author be narcissistic and give the audience just what they want? Like Shamash said, you don't have to go there if you don't want to. Evidently they want to or else they wouldn't be reading it...

We mock movies like "Ed TV" or "The Truman Show" but aren't they the next logical step? Until we start focusing our attention elsewhere, the only other thing we seem to be good at is watching and criticizing others.

Of course, this all comes from a person who is a blogger and reads blogs (but I despise reality TV in spite of the fact that it keeps my sister and her family fed and clothed). But in all honesty, I only read my friends' blogs because I want to know what's going on in their lives. Its like getting to hear from my friends without having them email me specifically. :)

[shamash]

I like the connection you made between voyeurism and reading blogs, "V.of C." There is something in both of these activities that resonates with the human psyche. Isn't the desire to eavesdrop or watch others instinctual? We all want to do it, yet we know we're not supposed to. How often have we said, "If only I had been a fly-on-the-wall during THAT conversation." In reality TV and in the blog world, the audience gets to be that fly on the wall. The difference, though, is that the participants KNOW they're being watched or read by an audience. There's an agreement between the two parties. This is key. I think that voyeurism, in the traditional sense, involves an unsuspecting party. You know: the "peeping Tom" syndrome, which, in my view, is much more "self-involved" and narcissitic than writing a blog.

Is the intrinsic motivation to read blogs "to see what someone ELSE is doing rather than pay attention to our own lives," as "Victim of Culture?" suggests? Perhaps. Yet, I think there's more to it.
1. The desire to be heard
2. The desire for connection
3. The desire to express as a form of therapy

Many people are lonely (not ME, damn it, not ME!!!) and they look for ways to connect to others. Blog communities -blogrings, etc...- bring together like-minded people. Plus, often times the writing process itself is the therapy. (Check out Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" and Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way")

There's a Master's thesis in there somewhere folks. And I thought of it first. ;-)

[Victim of Culture?]

You can have that thesis girl, I sure as heck don't want to steal it from ya. Throw is some Vygotsky as a reference but don't have too much cognitive download and you'll make Rick a happy man. ;-)

Besides, I don't want it because I will be too busy helping out people who don't know how to work MS Excel...

[shamash]

Oh, no! Not the "V" word!!!!
I'll have to go back in my notes to find out why Vygotsky is so important to R.F.
As for cognitive download: let's hope we have more free time in year two so we can sit at the Fresher telling the newbies how little work we have. And as for your chivalrous help to a certain English Lit damsel who never took a computer course in her life: she's come a long way, baby, since last July. I now excel at Excel. But, I'll still accept your help as long as you wear that yellow and black motorbike outfit. :-)

[V of C?]

Just when you thought it was safe, the V word is back. Stayed tuned for future adventures, one never knows when RF will pop more gems of wisdom upon us.

About this upcoming summer, have you noticed that our primary instructor has changed? There is a woman listed there now instead of the gentleman we were expecting. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we still haven't received this 'reading list' that we were promised back in August...

Actually, I wasn't referring to you about excel, rather a certain lass who teaches in Israel; someone that is quite 'victorian' in nature (if you get who I mean). I recall being summoned over to her monitor more than a few times while we worked on those gradebooks.

As for the motorcycle outfit - I should be able to work something out. Truth be told, I am probably going to sell the Triumph. It just doesn't feel right under me. You'll just have to wait and see what I show up on this year...