Whats my demographic here? No, seriously.
Well, Im finally a blogger. This is truly a possible way to communicate in a fully democratic manner. Or is it? Or what is that? Or how do you define all of this?
Here we go again.
I might be considered a conundrum, as far as demographics go, on the democracy associated with blogging. Heres my breakdown. I am a white male who is a professional student and I come from a lower middle class family....so far a pretty common demographic in America. I have access to computers....through school and the public library. I dont own a computer. I have no home internet access. I would assume that most white male grad students have a least a desktop computer that is connected to the internet, and that grad students in general-no matter what race-have a computer at their house.
I wonder what this means as far as gauging how many people have access, or know about blogging. Maybe the same proportion as the number of citizens in Athens who voted as opposed to those living in the city didnt?
I dont know. It seems to me that discussing the level of democracy in blogging (and a lot of other facets of society) is completely a theoretical and abstract discussion. The article on ICANN that we just read (as well as every other take on how "democratic" something is) is essentially an argument of parameters, definitions, and demographics- Which is boring and not socially uplifting-like democracy should be-dag-gummit. Wait. Can I curse in here? It's my blog right? Will I get blog-evicted or warned or ticketed for abusing the use of my blog? Anyhoo, thats a topic for another blog.
So long for now
Jason
posted by Jason @ 10:28 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I don't think the level of democracy is the point of the discussion. It seems to me like we're looking for the potential value that is added to democracy by online media- not just blogs but forums, chats, wikis etc.
Whether or not that value is real, and whether it is making a difference is a good question.
I saw a study recently that said most people on the street had no idea what a blog was.
With that said, I'm sure if you ask any the majority of high school students in america today what a blog, myspace, or a LiveJournal is, you will get a relatively informed answer.
When you say "I wonder what this means" are you saying you wonder how demographically representative you are of the populous at large, as a student who does not own a computer, or a person who does not own a computer? I don't know if its about owning a computer, but having access to online resources, which many people do have and take advantage of.
I grant that I come from a highly biased POV, as I have said before, but one can not dismiss the fact that people are using these resources to learn- look at the battle the chinese government is facing in keeping the larger internet from its citizens, and the dissidents who are finding ways around those roadblocks.
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