24th June 2006

Thoughts on junk blogs

posted in blogs, literacy |

I posted the following as a comment to Miguel’s recent post on “Junk Blogs.”

I agree with Stephen: In this conversation people should look at the blogosphere as a whole, and not just individual blogs. Certainly there are blogs that appeal more than others depending on personal preferences and interests. One person’s junk blog is another’s daily reading pleasure. However, I think the idea that blogs overall are “junk food” is… well… junk! By its nature the edublogosphere encourages people to seek diverse voices and compare ideas. Blogs aren’t making people more ignorant, in terms of spreading false info that is widely accepted and then acted on. I think it’s the reverse. Email chain letters seem to do more in terms of promoting fear and ignorance rather than blogging. With blogs, if someone is a crackpot you can generally comment there and share your view. With an email chain letter, typically it’s just forwarded on to countless thousands without much thought or consideration. Maybe someone should concoct a free email plugin that, when an email is being forwarded to a list, automatically connects to Snopes.com or a similar website to see if the person is spreading disinformation…..

Even if that technology was available and widely implemented (which is unlikely) it wouldn’t solve the problem. The problem we see with folks believing something and not getting more information about it has to do with critical thinking– not technology. I am a huge proponent of blogging and blog reading. Do I think people should read 1 blog and then believe what they read? Absolutely not! I think blogging encourages the expression of diverse voices and perspectives, and more naturally encourages the development of critical thinking than any other communications technology created to date. The echo chamber is still something to be concerned about, but that is why we need to invite more folks into the conversations happening here in the blogosphere!

Thanks for the thought provoking post, Miguel!

On this day..

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