The two posts of the week this week are both good examples of continuing a conversation and balancing the personal, diary-like function of a blog with its public, connected possibilities.
In her post “Is It Confidence or Fear?,” Danielle considers where we find women online and why. She shares a great video about harassment and then analyzes why women gravitate to certain online spaces:
Some women are conditioned not to share their knowledge and experiences as a result of the harassment. I believe that women feel safer on Pinterest because it is a place to find and share ideas about outfits and recipes. Many of the pins are not commented on and are pinned over and over again. On Wikipedia, or especially Reddit, your ideas are picked apart.
It would be interesting to look at Pinterest more carefully–are women doing more there than just sharing recipes? Is there a way for it to function as a knowledge-sharing source that extends beyond crafts?
Danielle also narrates her own feelings about editing wikipedia or writing a blog:
Today was my first Wikipedia edit and it was not fun. Writing a blog for someone else to read definitely not enjoyable. Why? I guess I am worried about sounded stupid or getting a bad comment on an idea.
I really like this move from the broader implications to her own personal feelings.
Matt makes a similar move in his post, “Creating History?”. In addition to drawing an epic comparison between editing Wikipedia and writing in a textbook, Matt admits that he felt nervous editing:
At face value, it seems harmless, but throughout the whole process I felt nervous and that it needed to be perfect. At this time, the edit is still up on the Wikipedia article concerning the Area Code 513.
The great questions he asked at the end of his post also encouraged some of you to admit that you were nervous, too.
But Matt and Danielle’s posts together show us that being nervous about editing Wikipedia isn’t just a gender thing; it happened to both men and women in the class. So maybe there’s a little more to the gender divide than we’ve uncovered so far? What do you think?
writing in a digital age 