-Do you think people nowadays get the same satisfaction form blogging, writing on-line diaries, and writing on Facebook that writers get from writing personal essays? What has been your experience?
I've had a lot of experience with writing in online diaries and Facebook, and I think that depending on the person and how he or she views what they are writing, there can be the same amount of satisfaction from writing in a blog or posting something on Facebook as there is in writing a personal essay. There are certain parallel's between online diaries and blogs to the more classical styles of the personal essay. Since we have studied the works of Kenko, I have started to see the similarities between his works and the idea of Facebook statuses. While they may seem unrelated when viewed separately, if you take a person's line of statuses you can always pick out a common thread that can relate them to each other, which is the whole idea behind Kenko's work. So I believe that a person can get a good deal of satisfaction between online writings and works that are given the label of a personal essay, because there isn't much of a difference between the two.
I've tried the online writing thing out and I have the opposite experience. The fact that, with something like a blog, I am placing my writing on the internet for all to see changes things drastically. For one, with blogs we are often seeking readership. I think because anyone can read a blog and because we seek readers, consciously or subconsciously, we change the way that we write. It seems to me that, at least to some extent, blogs can limit the possibilities for a personal essay. Of course, this is primarily a psychological limitation that some people clearly overcome. A text box on a blog is not altogether different from a Word document in that both are places in which we can write. For some reason, though, I find it more difficult to write well when I'm blogging. Maybe it's simply because I feel put on the spot. (Also, blogs don't let a writer do things like footnotes, which is a difficulty for me.) I do, though, despite its limitations, see how the blog can be like a personal essay for many people.
I have to admit that I have little to no experience with the whole on-line writing scene. I was even late to the facebook game, and while I finally gave in a got an account, I rarely ever log in and have not once posted anything. I guess this has to do with me not being much for public display. In term of the potential for a source or means of 'satisfaction' I suppose I can see how it would work for some, but I can't see myself personally ever changing my aversion to it. I think this might have to do with the transitory quality of this type of writing, that somehow I don't see the same amount of effort going into this writing. Twittering somehow seems to me to encourage an acceptance of the face-paced ideal that our world keeps pushing, and in my mind seems to discourage a concept of slowing down and actually reflecting on something in writing. I also agree with dave that the audience factor is different, that somehow there is more pressure because it is really going out there (while a piece of writing traditionally may not be written with a specific audience in mind but rather more for the writer him/her self), but also that there is less pressure because the ephemeral nature of these electronic forms always have the potential excuse of being a quick thought (rather than something in print which the author has probably continually revised before it is put into a public forum).
The motives behind writing on Facebook, and maybe some blogs and online diaries, don't correspond to the underlying principals of the personal essay - of following one's thoughts and exploring a subject in order to come to some understanding of oneself or of the World around us. Facebook is primarily for communication I would argue; messages between friends and posting status updates (please). I mean to say that the way most people use Facebook doesn't equate with writing a personal essay. Having said that, I'm sure there are some people who use these online communities to display their thoughts, but that doesn't necessarily mean your writing a personal essay. If someone uses that online space to write in this manner than there's no difference really to a personal essay, I suppose, aside from the fact that your opening yourself up to the whole cyber-space community. I guess I'll leave it at this: writing online has the potential to be a great resource for writing in any style or for any purpose, but people haven't caught on to that, in general - most people don't use the internet to read. When the audience gets wise to this and essentially popularizes it, I think the writers will follow.
I agree that the general population doesn't realize what a great resource we have in the internet for literary purposes. Maybe one day the "online essay" will have it's own place in the essay category. It's definitely heading that way with the gaining popularity of the blog. Cory talks about opening oneself up to the whole cyber-space community when writing online. But isn't that just another form of gathering an audience? The great essayists of the past didn't have this resource for gaining readers; they had to gain them through other outlets. I think modern essayists wishing to put their works out into the populace have a fantastic tool at their disposal.
Cory, you make a very good point in regard to purpose. It does seem like the purpose is generally different when we compare online writing, specifically Facebook or Twitter, and essaying. On the other hand, I feel like blogs are becoming a very big deal.
You say that most people don't use the internet to read. I'm assuming you mean writing that could more easily be called "literature." You may be right in this regard, though I've begun reading a few online literary journals that are pretty good. That aside, I don't think blogs should be ignored as a sort of "pop literature." Popular blogs like Hipster Runoff or even Perez Hilton (though far from being considered "literature" in any classical sense) publish rants or just thoughts about popular culture. I see it as, in many ways, a modern parallel to Sei Shonagon's "Hateful Things" or many of Chesterton's essays. These bloggers don't generally use the elevated diction or vocabulary of a classical essayist, but the idea is very much the same: to follow a stream of thought.
When blogs are done 'right', I find them to be a truly interesting resource for the compilation of thoughts, ideas, or inspiration. Most of the blogs I do follow are geared more towards art and design. I think for some people, blogging may be a accessible medium for expression. I think that "bloggers" and writers of the "personal essay" should be taken separately. You guys have brought up a key component in blogging - that of motivation. I think for some - blogs, myspace, and facebook serve as a place where people can firmly assert their "identities". And I think that this can be a much more satisfying experience for some rather than sitting down and trying to flesh out a self-identifying personal essay.
With all of these on-line forms people have the ability to control what image they want to present to the interwebs through a variety of songs, photographs, avatars, ect. I find Facebook and Myspace to be especially problematic in this regard. I am like Brian in that I am not one for self-display or self-promotion.
Further, It is a rare event that I am on Facebook and it is even rarer for me to be astounded by someone's status. Amanda, I do see how in their brevity, Facebook statues could resemble Kenko's style.
However, Kenko's work first - displays a certain depth of thought and secondly - his work is rich with poetic potential. Both elements are all too absent from the major of Facebook statues. David I think you make an important point about the ways writing is consciously or subconsciously altered because of audience. I suppose it is important to consider the who Kenko was writing for and who the masses of Facebook/Twitter/Myspace users are writing for. Just as we labor under the demand of a 'Pop-Culture' culture, Kenko was subject to the demands of his culture as well. time during in which Kenko wrote, and the culture that we are all operating under.
I'm just curious to see if you guys can actually tell the difference between excepts from Kenko and a Facebook/Twitter statuses. So here they are:
1) Are we only to look at flowers in full bloom, at the moon when it is clear?
2)We are all lonely for something that we do not know we're lonely for.
3)We do not always know how we or others will react, or even if reactions are necessary; but one thing we know for sure is that life never ends.
4) In all things it is the beginning and end that are interesting. The love of men and women—is it only when they meet face to face? To feel sorrow at an unaccomplished meeting, to grieve over empty vows, to spend the long night sleepless and alone, to yearn for distant skies, in a neglected house to think fondly of the past—this is what love is.
When I said that people don't use the internet to read I was referring to literature, fiction or literary/creative non-fiction. Sure, people will go online to read news articles and emails, maybe synopses or product reviews, and even research articles and papers but the internet is more of a place for communication and business transaction - not so much for purposes of writing or reading in the literary sense, in general. Although the personal essay could be the form of writing that hits the online scene the hardest first because of its relative brevity.
I do not have the consistency necessary to maintain any sort of blog. I have tried and failed and realistically, I'm just not sure that I have anything worth saying that anyone else would find worth reading. I guess my electronic self-explorative method is limited to facebook. I don't have a myspace and I find them to be quite hackneyed and trite. Facebook at least allows me some limits so that I don't end up "self-exploring" with a Taylor Lautner background and some photo slide show of me on spring break.
I do however believe that the internet is a great way to develop the "modern personal essay." As I said in my presentation, Facebook is a lot like the personal essay, in the sense that one can limit what others view of the creator and in that way I would suppose Facebook is a means to building an electronic persona of sorts.
I've had a lot of experience with writing in online diaries and Facebook, and I think that depending on the person and how he or she views what they are writing, there can be the same amount of satisfaction from writing in a blog or posting something on Facebook as there is in writing a personal essay. There are certain parallel's between online diaries and blogs to the more classical styles of the personal essay. Since we have studied the works of Kenko, I have started to see the similarities between his works and the idea of Facebook statuses. While they may seem unrelated when viewed separately, if you take a person's line of statuses you can always pick out a common thread that can relate them to each other, which is the whole idea behind Kenko's work. So I believe that a person can get a good deal of satisfaction between online writings and works that are given the label of a personal essay, because there isn't much of a difference between the two.
ReplyDeleteI've tried the online writing thing out and I have the opposite experience. The fact that, with something like a blog, I am placing my writing on the internet for all to see changes things drastically. For one, with blogs we are often seeking readership. I think because anyone can read a blog and because we seek readers, consciously or subconsciously, we change the way that we write. It seems to me that, at least to some extent, blogs can limit the possibilities for a personal essay. Of course, this is primarily a psychological limitation that some people clearly overcome. A text box on a blog is not altogether different from a Word document in that both are places in which we can write. For some reason, though, I find it more difficult to write well when I'm blogging. Maybe it's simply because I feel put on the spot. (Also, blogs don't let a writer do things like footnotes, which is a difficulty for me.) I do, though, despite its limitations, see how the blog can be like a personal essay for many people.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I have little to no experience with the whole on-line writing scene. I was even late to the facebook game, and while I finally gave in a got an account, I rarely ever log in and have not once posted anything. I guess this has to do with me not being much for public display. In term of the potential for a source or means of 'satisfaction' I suppose I can see how it would work for some, but I can't see myself personally ever changing my aversion to it. I think this might have to do with the transitory quality of this type of writing, that somehow I don't see the same amount of effort going into this writing. Twittering somehow seems to me to encourage an acceptance of the face-paced ideal that our world keeps pushing, and in my mind seems to discourage a concept of slowing down and actually reflecting on something in writing. I also agree with dave that the audience factor is different, that somehow there is more pressure because it is really going out there (while a piece of writing traditionally may not be written with a specific audience in mind but rather more for the writer him/her self), but also that there is less pressure because the ephemeral nature of these electronic forms always have the potential excuse of being a quick thought (rather than something in print which the author has probably continually revised before it is put into a public forum).
ReplyDeleteThe motives behind writing on Facebook, and maybe some blogs and online diaries, don't correspond to the underlying principals of the personal essay - of following one's thoughts and exploring a subject in order to come to some understanding of oneself or of the World around us. Facebook is primarily for communication I would argue; messages between friends and posting status updates (please). I mean to say that the way most people use Facebook doesn't equate with writing a personal essay. Having said that, I'm sure there are some people who use these online communities to display their thoughts, but that doesn't necessarily mean your writing a personal essay. If someone uses that online space to write in this manner than there's no difference really to a personal essay, I suppose, aside from the fact that your opening yourself up to the whole cyber-space community. I guess I'll leave it at this: writing online has the potential to be a great resource for writing in any style or for any purpose, but people haven't caught on to that, in general - most people don't use the internet to read. When the audience gets wise to this and essentially popularizes it, I think the writers will follow.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the general population doesn't realize what a great resource we have in the internet for literary purposes. Maybe one day the "online essay" will have it's own place in the essay category. It's definitely heading that way with the gaining popularity of the blog.
ReplyDeleteCory talks about opening oneself up to the whole cyber-space community when writing online. But isn't that just another form of gathering an audience? The great essayists of the past didn't have this resource for gaining readers; they had to gain them through other outlets. I think modern essayists wishing to put their works out into the populace have a fantastic tool at their disposal.
Cory, you make a very good point in regard to purpose. It does seem like the purpose is generally different when we compare online writing, specifically Facebook or Twitter, and essaying. On the other hand, I feel like blogs are becoming a very big deal.
ReplyDeleteYou say that most people don't use the internet to read. I'm assuming you mean writing that could more easily be called "literature." You may be right in this regard, though I've begun reading a few online literary journals that are pretty good. That aside, I don't think blogs should be ignored as a sort of "pop literature." Popular blogs like Hipster Runoff or even Perez Hilton (though far from being considered "literature" in any classical sense) publish rants or just thoughts about popular culture. I see it as, in many ways, a modern parallel to Sei Shonagon's "Hateful Things" or many of Chesterton's essays. These bloggers don't generally use the elevated diction or vocabulary of a classical essayist, but the idea is very much the same: to follow a stream of thought.
When blogs are done 'right', I find them to be a truly interesting resource for the compilation of thoughts, ideas, or inspiration. Most of the blogs I do follow are geared more towards art and design. I think for some people, blogging may be a accessible medium for expression. I think that "bloggers" and writers of the "personal essay" should be taken separately. You guys have brought up a key component in blogging - that of motivation. I think for some - blogs, myspace, and facebook serve as a place where people can firmly assert their "identities". And I think that this can be a much more satisfying experience for some rather than sitting down and trying to flesh out a self-identifying personal essay.
ReplyDeleteWith all of these on-line forms people have the ability to control what image they want to present to the interwebs through a variety of songs, photographs, avatars, ect. I find Facebook and Myspace to be especially problematic in this regard. I am like Brian in that I am not one for self-display or self-promotion.
Further, It is a rare event that I am on Facebook and it is even rarer for me to be astounded by someone's status. Amanda, I do see how in their brevity, Facebook statues could resemble Kenko's style.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Kenko's work first - displays a certain depth of thought and secondly - his work is rich with poetic potential. Both elements are all too absent from the major of Facebook statues. David I think you make an important point about the ways writing is consciously or subconsciously altered because of audience. I suppose it is important to consider the who Kenko was writing for and who the masses of Facebook/Twitter/Myspace users are writing for. Just as we labor under the demand of a 'Pop-Culture' culture, Kenko was subject to the demands of his culture as well. time during in which Kenko wrote, and the culture that we are all operating under.
I'm just curious to see if you guys can actually tell the difference between excepts from Kenko and a Facebook/Twitter statuses. So here they are:
1) Are we only to look at flowers in full bloom, at the moon when it is clear?
2)We are all lonely for something that we do not know we're lonely for.
3)We do not always know how we or others will react, or even if reactions are necessary; but one thing we know for sure is that life never ends.
4) In all things it is the beginning and end that are interesting. The love of men and women—is it only when they meet face to face? To feel sorrow at an unaccomplished meeting, to grieve over empty vows, to spend the long night sleepless and alone, to yearn for distant skies, in a neglected house to think fondly of the past—this is what love is.
I actually can't tell the difference enough to even venture a guess.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said that people don't use the internet to read I was referring to literature, fiction or literary/creative non-fiction. Sure, people will go online to read news articles and emails, maybe synopses or product reviews, and even research articles and papers but the internet is more of a place for communication and business transaction - not so much for purposes of writing or reading in the literary sense, in general. Although the personal essay could be the form of writing that hits the online scene the hardest first because of its relative brevity.
ReplyDeleteI do not have the consistency necessary to maintain any sort of blog. I have tried and failed and realistically, I'm just not sure that I have anything worth saying that anyone else would find worth reading. I guess my electronic self-explorative method is limited to facebook. I don't have a myspace and I find them to be quite hackneyed and trite. Facebook at least allows me some limits so that I don't end up "self-exploring" with a Taylor Lautner background and some photo slide show of me on spring break.
ReplyDeleteI do however believe that the internet is a great way to develop the "modern personal essay." As I said in my presentation, Facebook is a lot like the personal essay, in the sense that one can limit what others view of the creator and in that way I would suppose Facebook is a means to building an electronic persona of sorts.