No Fear in Honesty and Disagreement

As I’ve read and researched about blogs, I’m finding that certain spheres have found a use for and have manipulated blogs to suit their purpose. Business is using blogs to talk about their products; journalism for getting stories out (esp. those stories that don’t get enough coverage or none at all); the individual for sharing their life and thoughts. From all this research, there are some commonalities between these spheres in their use of blogs. That is, they are opening up and trying to be as honest as possible because internet users and blog readers can spot a phony from a mile away.

I find this common thread to be very ensuring. It suits the internet as a free source of information (for the most part). It is the ultimate democracy. And the users are enforcing honesty on it. They are the ones that will call out a phony right on the phony’s and their own blog. So, blog creators must be sure that their info is accurate and honest, or else someone is liable to call them out.

Beyond honesty, there is more openness and wilingness to disagree because of the comfort in anonimity. On first impression, concealing one’s identity and attacking someone would be considered cowardice. However, if acknowledging one’s identity will keep one from speaking the truth or pointing out a falsehood, perhaps anonimity isn’t all that bad, especially for the timid.