page 68: no safe haven left.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
mused @ 2:32 PM
how safe is one's blog? and how private is private? i have been following with some interest over the last month about a few incidents in singapore where personal blogs and forums have taken centre stage in singapore.
the latest incident is regarding a lady who claims to have been molested by her friend while in korea. the problem is objectivity. while yesterday's new paper came up with a story on the lady's point of view gave some support for the lady online, today's article about the man's story has created a backlash for her, criticizing her for not giving the full story. however, when blogging or describing any situation concerning yourself, it is hard to be objective. to be honest, how many people are truly objective when they feel wronged.
face it, unless you lock your blog's entry to friends via password, it is open to whole wide web. that is to say any tom dick or harry and/or people who blog surf incessently for juicy bits of gossip . that leaves your blog (and mine too) and open target for commentators, who have every right to flame or support you. when making a statement in cyberspace, it is nearly as important as doing it in real life. thats how technology has become so intergrated in our lives.
similarly, other bloggers, such as the female blogger who criticized mindef about NS and the blogger who got caught by the police for writing racist remarks online, have been in the headlines. while some posts are deserving of flaming , some online readers are taking their brand of online justice too far.
forums are ablaze with these stories, with each forumer either criticizing or supporting these bloggers. i myself have been reading on ongoings for the past 1 month and i am going sit on the fence for all of them. because none of us truly know the full story. however, with heavy handed criticism of these blogs on forums, i can't help but wonder: if bloggers are subject to being pointed fingers out, how about the forumers who point the fingers?
the internet gives a cloak of anonymity. however, this cloak is more false for bloggers who post with their real names then forumers who post under a handle. in fact, bloggers should realise by putting their real names on their blogs, they have lost that anonymity. fourmers on the other hand are protected by this cloak, as long as they don't reveal their names. are forumers
and/or people who comment on blogs drunk on this power by lashing out at anything that displeases them? sometimes, the comments they leave on other people's blogs and tagboards begs to question if they have any maturity. this goes the same with their posts. its a standard case of the pot calling the kettle black.
for example, if you check out the blog posts (locate them yourself) i mentioned above, or rather the blogs that have not closed down due to comment abuse, reading the comments by a poster who identifies him/herself as a user of a popular forum online questions the poster's intellect. another comment example is insulting the blogger's grammar and spelling when the forum's own writing style is a grammatical nightmare.
to the credit to some of the forums/fourmers/posters though, they have shown fairness and objectivity when writing online. instead of joining the mob and setting everything they see in flames, some posts have shown fair handedness and level thinking. some posts also have exposed scams in singapore, such as the recent paperclip scam by some youths.
we need to practice fair argument and reasoning when posting, for all bloggers and forumers, even in 'casual' blogs and forums. or in the end, we will be empty vessels.
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that make the most noise.Labels: critical thinking, singapore
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