This from the blog of danah boyd. It is worth following - idiosyncratic,
sometimes banal, sometimes very insightful. I like her observation below and
wonder whether list members have had similar thoughts about how backchannel
works in what she calls 'moments when people don't realize the bridge
between the digital and the physical'?
Sue
apophenia <http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/>
:: making connections where none previously existed
if a backchannel exists in the woods....
<http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/07/28/if_a_backchannel_exist
s_in_the_woods.html>
By zephoria on social observations
I'm sitting in a cafe trying very hard to frame blogs in Ong's terms and
ignore the conversation next to me but i can't. A woman is loudly talking,
using her hands for emphasis; the man next to her is leaning in and nodding
and uh-huhing, saying confirming statements every few minutes. They've been
talking this way for a long time. She's analyzing another woman, critiquing
her view of the world, her actions, her attitudes. She's looking for
validation, offering stories to keep this guy paying attention. Finally,
wrapped up in their conversation, i IM to Barb about it; she's sitting right
next to me, pretending to blog but mostly chewing on her pen. I find myself
analyzing her analyzing this other woman. Barb notes "you realize - we're
the backchannel for their conversation." And we both laugh. My conception
of backchannels is so biased by the primary discussion around it, whereby
backchannels are a second front channel, a known presence of people with
computers. Do they know that we are their backchannel, the meta on their
meta? What does it mean that a perspective on their conversation is being
recorded for posterity, only they will never know it. Or will they? What
happens when strangers recognize digital records of their physical traces?
Ah, secondary orality. I'm fascinated by moments when people don't realize
the bridge between the digital and the physical. My techno world is far too
always techno. You know anything can and will be blogged. But the rest of
the world doesn't. As Barb notes, "it's no different from any other
meta-gossip." So what does it mean to blog about it, to meta meta it, to
meta it beyond any realization of gossip? There's a koan in here somewhere.
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