An interesting piece on blogging appeared in Sunday’s Observer. Click here to read it in full, but the primary point appears to be one of blogger beware, after dedicated blogger Emily Gould published a lengthy recantation in the New York Times. Gould wrote that “I had made my existence so public in such a strange way, and I wanted to take it all back, but in order to do that I’d have to destroy the entire internet.” She also “prayed for an electromagnetic storm that would cancel out every mistake I’d ever made.”
Gould’s mistake – publishing too much detail about her personal life – has been replicated by many other bloggers, according to The Observer. Chief among them was Zoe Margolis, author of the popular Girl With A One Track Mind blog and book (about her sexual adventures). Having been ‘outed’ by a national newspaper, Margolis reportedly said last week: “There still seems a long way to go before people grasp how revealing so much personal detail about themselves can have a permanent impact.”
But Margolis was quick to elaborate. On the same day as The Observer piece, she wrote a post saying that she had been quoted in such a way as to make her sound “negative” about blogging. This isn’t the case, though. Margolis says that she may have been naive but that she agrees with Jeff Jarvis: “The benefits of publicness [of blogging] will outweigh the negatives. The internet is making us more social. And our mutually assured humiliation may make us more forgiving.”
A blogger himself, Blade is hardly likely to condemn his very medium of expression, but what to make of all this? Well, in Blade’s view, blogs are (a) here to stay, (b) increasingly a staple of a serious professional organisation’s enterprise, and (c) a vital adjunct to democracy and freedom of speech.
But bloggers should, if they value their private lives, exercise discretion. To do otherwise is to make a Faustian pact. So far as Blade is aware, and notwithstanding the advent of the blogosphere, the result of making such a bargain has not changed since Goethe published the first part of Faust, in 1808.
There has been plenty written about how employers reportedly use the internet to check up on candidates during the recruitment process. As a recent job-hunter, my tip is that the same technique can be helpful to candidates researching the individuals who will be interviewing them! Touché?
So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.
Now you are just Fred.
Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.
The Forfeiture Committee did for you.
No one had heard of it before,
But Dave said it had to act, and it did.
Trouble is that no one knows what to think.
Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,
Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?
We don’t know.
Do you?
By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.
STOP PRESS:
Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.
Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”
Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”
East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”
A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.
We seem to be visually led this week but sometimes words proliferate far too much and letting an image do the talking is no bad thing. That’s another way of saying that ACCESS Agency’s work with Lego is absolutely top drawer.
Is there a geek inside all of us?
Excellent Nike ad
Memo to would-be hacks: good writing is no longer a tool of your trade
Released almost a year ago, Spada’s groundbreaking research report, British Professions Today, is available for free download
This bank is so well designed that many of its staff never go home (allegedly)
In the latest of our series of white papers, Spada Research examines trends in environmental reporting.
After a raft of phone-hacking admissions and allegations, we are no longer seen as the gruff but dependable watchdog. Neville Thurlbeck, formerly of the News of the World (part of his Damascene conversion; to be continued).