“Have Your Say”, Comments and Online Discourse
This is a big subject and there’s absolutely no way that I can do justice to it in this meagre blog post. I’m going to reference several aspects of online discourse in an attempt to highlight what I see as a major cultural shift that has happened in the last two decades. I’ll be reflecting upon my own experiences which may differ from yours. Geography, communities and culture plays a part in all this and what I observe from my “window upon the world”, may not be identical to yours. But I believe that human interaction is changing; shifting on its axis and will continue to do so. Furthermore, that the liberating benefits of social media have come with several consequences and not all of them good. Am I advocating that things return exactly as they were? No. But I feel that the pendulum has swung from one extreme to another, where the most equitable position is somewhere between these two.
The Peril of Leaving Comments
I recently decided to try and comment more on websites and blogs, mainly in a shameless attempt to raise my own writing profile. I live in hope that people will be enamoured with my “puckish epigrams” and follow the breadcrumb trail back here. However, leaving comments takes time because I cannot just post a few succinct words. I always end up typing several paragraphs because brevity often leads to a point being misconstrued. We do after all live in an age where people actively look for offense regardless of whether it’s there or not. However, I digress. What I enjoy about leaving comments on blog posts and website articles, is the chance to exchange ideas and to riff off other people. I also find that by marshalling my thoughts and leaving a comment elsewhere, it can lead to me subsequently expanding on those ideas and developing them into a blog post for Contains Moderate Peril. So overall, I advocate leaving comments and feedback.
Engaging With Others
If you create any sort of content, then at some point you must address the practical issue of engaging with your audience. Some folk get by without doing so, subsequently disabling comments on their You Tube channel or blog. My fellow podcaster Brian has happily managed without a Twitter account for years and has only just returned to that online community. However, I feel that two-way communication is broadly a good thing and I’ve advocated this in past and more recent posts. I’m currently trying to leave more comments on the various blogs that I read and retweet and reply more frequently on Twitter. So far this has been a positive experience. And then I went a stage further and entered in to an “exchange of views” on a well-known gaming news and discussion site. Let it suffice to say that it clearly brought in to focus the unpredictable nature of human interaction and the often-baffling behaviour of others online. Due to the obvious lack of visual, verbal and social cues, discerning others words can be difficult. Something that some no doubt deliberately play on.