Are all blogs narcissistic?
As soon as I posted my last blog I got this question - "Are all blogs narcissistic?" I know this medium is supposed to be an outlet to express our views and opinions and anything and everything (as I am doing right now). But then, should it be considered as unsolicited advise? Should'nt the reader say - who are you to tell me about this topic? or maybe - why should I care about what you have to say?
Is it enough for us to say - I will just post and I dont care if somebody agrees with me or not. But then I am assuming that all of us post a blog only if we are an authority on a particular subject (and I am not on philosphical ramblings) or because we are seeking approval from the readers. By seeking approval are we being immodest or just trying to raise our own self-esteem?
As I have already mentioned that I am rambling, I will ramble along some more....
Is being raised as an Indian, with an associated baggage of culture and upbringing, force us to be modest? Is that why, when I reached the US, I was encouraged to speak up about myself. Is it true to say that in the western (or non-Indian) cultures you can be heard only by speaking out yourself. Expecting someone else to praise you or being modest is not going to help. So then, does it always mean that you have to have a certain amount of self-love - narcissism to appreciate yourself and talk about it?
Which brings me back to titular question - "Are all blogs narcissistic?" Who out there has an answer? Please speak up!
Is it enough for us to say - I will just post and I dont care if somebody agrees with me or not. But then I am assuming that all of us post a blog only if we are an authority on a particular subject (and I am not on philosphical ramblings) or because we are seeking approval from the readers. By seeking approval are we being immodest or just trying to raise our own self-esteem?
As I have already mentioned that I am rambling, I will ramble along some more....
Is being raised as an Indian, with an associated baggage of culture and upbringing, force us to be modest? Is that why, when I reached the US, I was encouraged to speak up about myself. Is it true to say that in the western (or non-Indian) cultures you can be heard only by speaking out yourself. Expecting someone else to praise you or being modest is not going to help. So then, does it always mean that you have to have a certain amount of self-love - narcissism to appreciate yourself and talk about it?
Which brings me back to titular question - "Are all blogs narcissistic?" Who out there has an answer? Please speak up!
posted by Bharani Ashokan at 2:37 PM
8 Comments:
Well, it might start off seeming that way, but it doesn't have to be at all. In fact, most good blogs are ones that are fostering extensive conversation. Blogs facilitate that already by giving those "commenting" equal voice (i.e., space) as the original author. Dan Gillmor, a former well-known reporter for a newspaper here in the Bay Area, is now working on a grassroots journalism project. The blog is the tool he is using. His blog is one where deep conversations on various topics are taking place. Read this: Dan Gillmor's "Welcome to Bayosphere".
Also see for example, the "Radio Open Source" project, which figures out what shows it needs to air, and who to invite, based on ideas it throws out on its blog, and how people respond.
The challenge, to me, seems to be one of building that community around the blog. Once that is done, the energy that generates will move the blog away from narcissism in no time.
The examples that you cite are blogs with a purpose. What happens to blogs like mine without any purpose?
Well, I should concede that the only purpose I see is to provide one more forum for ME to talk about MY views. I dont think of it as a negative thing. In the past it to be used to be that you would post your views on your website and you would have to wait for someone to comment on it by email and it becomes a more personal process then. Now, as you say, it is true that the person commenting back also gets an equal voice, more akin to a discussion forum.
But the question I come back to again is this - isnt the choice of the topic decided by me in such a random blog? Doesnt that intrinsically make it a very narcissistic process? What do you say?
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Bharani, check this out - a blogger after your own mould. In his own words: "I am vain enough to write just to see my work online. Vanity and boredom are what prompted this blog into existence. I will try to keep it interesting, forgive me if I am unable to."
http://pareshaan.blogspot.com
Haven't read the postings yet to see if they hold up to any water.
I bumped into him when I was reading my daily dose of a favorite blog of mine (and you'll love it too, I think)
- that of Dilip D'Souza, who's an investigative journalist based in Mumbai, and a writer with a great humanist touch and a terrific sense of humor, IMO.
Bloggs, I believe are medium of self expression. For those of us who cannot express ourselves with various art forms (- painting, music, dance, poetry etc) end up writing blogs. It can also be attributed to the attention syndrome we all crave for. May be its the cool factor that you are a blogger; after all blogging and podcasting are the IN thing for this year.
If expressing yourself is narcissistic, then most of us would end up being a narcist.
bharani, this ram's friend sujana. I too clicked on your name out of curiosity when you first left a comment on ram's blog. read this article recently and it reminded me of you.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/oct/med-blogging.htm
A new collablog.
enjoy,
sujana.
http://www.theotherindia.org/
How the other half lives - A new collaborative blog by
Anand, Dilip, Shivam, Uma, Vikrum
About
-----
In 1890, Jacob Riis, a Dutch immigrant to the US, wrote about - and photographed - the appalling slum conditions in New York City. Around the 1890s, half of New Yorkers lived in slums (similar to modern Bombay) and Riis wrote his book to garner much needed attention. The book was called How the Other Half Lives.
The vast number of homeless immigrants who pour into India’s metropolises every day and live in slums are the other half of a shining India. We know that India still remains deeply divided between its elites and its have-nots; a divide so great that much of the elite does not even see it, happily believing that the nation as a whole is on its way to superpower status. There is no doubt at all that economic liberalisation has helped a section of the economy, yet there is equally no doubt that there are faultlines in economic growth and equitability. Social rifts - such as those pertaining to caste and communal tensions - intersect in complex ways with the changing economic landscape.
This blog will attempt to explore that uncertain terrain. It will focus on the “other half” that is often ignored by a market-driven mainstream media. It will attempt to present a fuller picture of India and a fuller examination of issues of concern than what we normally see around us.
To this end, we hope to ask questions and suggest answers. Some of the questions we ask include:
Fundamentally, what are the aims of liberalization; what should they be; and what else defines India in the 21st century, apart from the growth of our economy or the successes and failures of liberalization?
Which sections of Indian society and the economy have benefited from liberalization, and which ones have not? And which ones have been adversely affected because of liberalization?
Is poverty decreasing? If so how much and how fast?
What are we doing to push growth and opportunity in rural areas, where over two-thirds of Indians still live?
What about issues of caste, class, gender? What about food, housing, water, sanitation, education? What about corruption, crime, social justice, rights and responsibilities?
Riis’s book was popular not only because of its documentation of the problem, but also because it offered solutions to the tenement problems in New York. We hope that this blog, too, will not only highlight the “other half” but also search for and discuss solutions. We are aware that for a country as diverse as India, there is no one approach for tackling all of our economic, social, and political problems. We would like to examine and discuss different approaches.
In the end, we are not fundamentally opposed to anyone else’s ideas about how India must develop and progress. What we want to do is to raise the issues that concern us and encourage debate about them, because we think they concern us all.
Because India is changing, in many ways and dramatically. Yet in many ways India is also much the same. This blog is a fruit of the tension between those two thoughts, an attempt to examine the ground in between
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