Spunky Homeschool

I'm a Disinhibitionist....

Apr. 22, 2006 at 12:58 PM

Blogging

...and if you're a blogger you are too!

Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, opines that bloggers are contributing to the slide toward more open "wierdness" and "disinhibition" in our society. And even worse this wierdness is spreading like "crabgrass".

[I]t looks to me as if the world of blogs may be filling up with people who for the previous 200 millennia of human existence kept their weird thoughts more or less to themselves. Now, they don't have to. They've got the Web. Now they can share.

But there is one more personality trait common to the blogosphere that, like crabgrass, may be spreading to touch and cover everything. It's called disinhibition. Briefly, disinhibition is what the world would look like if everyone behaved like Jerry Lewis or Paris Hilton or we all lived in South Park.

There's even new clinical psychological terms to describe some patterns of behavior,
As described by psychologist John Suler, there's dissociative anonymity (You don't know me); solipsistic introjection (It's all in my head); and dissociative imagination (It's just a game). This is all known as digital identity, and it sounds perfectly plausible to me.
So bloggers are disinhibited wierdos mired in dissociative anonymity. The blogosphere is really just a solipsistic introjection. But I'm not too worried since this is all a part of my digital identity. Spunky's just a figment of my dissociative imagination and I'm not really here. Really. And if you believe that I am, you're suffering from dissociative anonymity too!
There is one silver lining, if anyone threatens to sue for what I've written, I can just claim I'm mentally ill and therefore cannot be held responsible for anything I say or do.
 
Oh and by the way, please excuse my absence for the rest of the day.   It's been unseasonably warm here and I have to go out and water my crabgrass.  This is the best crop I've had in years.

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8 Comments and Trackbacks

posted by WaitingontheLord on Apr. 22, 2006 at 1:16 PM

I knew something was wrong with me! Now I know what it is - I'm a blogger! I'm a contributor to this societal issue! :)

posted by mom2chris on Apr. 22, 2006 at 1:46 PM

Was there any comment on Wall Street Journal writers? What category do they fit into? ;)

posted by OreoSouza on Apr. 22, 2006 at 2:49 PM

Very very interesting.

What an odd way of seeing things.

I wonder how many people are saying things on their blogs that they don't say anyway.

For most of us, we just have a tiny bit bigger audience than when we say our weird stuff at home to our family and friends.

Odd.

This guy is spending too much time thinking to himself. I wonder what made him think we wanted to hear his weird thoughts?

posted by pianosteve on Apr. 22, 2006 at 5:47 PM

I have read this article several times, and still don't know what it means about me and my personality. But I think I might be in biiiiiig trouble if society as a large finds out that I've been contributing to its demise.

or....something like that! ;)

steve :)

posted by Laura A on Apr. 23, 2006 at 7:45 AM

Thanks for posting the article. I got curious from the comments, read it, and I think it means mostly that some people are saying things they wouldn't (or shouldn't) say in person. Some are simply rude, but some fall into the category that the Bible says we shouldn't even mention in secret (hope I got that verse right). Increasingly, I am seeing these same behaviors in public, at least in Manhattan and increasingly during my visits South. Have you ever seen a bad case of cell phone rage? Of a shouting contest (complete with expletives) over someone breaking in line? I had a 12yo boy yesterday try to intimidate me by taking cell phone pictures of me while I was running (in modest clothing) and acting as though I should be intimidated. (I wasn't worried because he looked way too sedentary to keep up.) If inhibition means using decent manners and thinking long enough not to do or type something ugly, I'm all for it.

I like this blog, Spunky, because I can be reasonably certain that there will always be a bit of news here that will be interesting to a Christian homeschooling parent. That means I'm more likely to see it here than if I go look for it myself. But I don't think that you are solipsistic or inappropriately disinhibited in your posts at all! And in my experience, people who are kind online often turn out to be kind in real life as well.

posted by kindredspiritMom on Apr. 23, 2006 at 11:59 PM

I guess I have major problems... I actually hallucinated you in person and even took notes! Your imaginary friend,
Michele

posted by jayfromcleveland on Apr. 24, 2006 at 10:08 AM

However you pronounce all that psychobabble, I agree with the basic idea. The web has never been "real" to me and everything that is said on the web is basically irrelevant. With very few exceptions, I've hardly met anyone in real life that I'd first met on the web, and very few of my "real" friends have computers or otherwise have a web presence. So my "real" friends represent the real world where talking and other conventional communication takes place with flesh and blood persons. My "virtual" friends on the web are effectively a figment of my imagination, electronic personages that I only interact with through keyboard and monitor. If that sounds crazy, it probably is. I'm convinced that the ever-pervasive encroachment of technology into our lives is bad for our society's collective mental health (at least mine anyway!)

posted by spunkyhomeschool on Apr. 24, 2006 at 10:19 AM

I was nuts before I started blogging. I just didn't know what to call it. At least the web has now provided me with a very important sounding name for my psychosis. It was awful living in a false reality and everyone just calling me wierd.

Kindredspirit, You heard ME speak???? Are you sure? I only type my thoughts. I haven't uttered an audible word in over 10 years.

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