Essays, Facebook, Diaries, Blogs: Our Cross-Genre Display of Interest in Ourselves and Each Other
By Meg Tallis
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| Image 1: Sharing of the Human Condition Across Multiple Genres. |
Pioneer essay writers Michel de Montaigne and Francis Bacon are said to have shown 'equally strong interest in the human condition' (Di Yanni, 2005, p.6) with regards to their essay topics of choice. Why was this? Why is it that identity, as Di Yanni states, is a 'frequent topic among contemporary essayists' (2005, p.6)? Why are we so interested in reading about each other today via various online text genres?
Now days, we are consuming the identity construction of others by reading their blogs and status updates; pre-internet we were obtaining similar information through essays and journals. After this week's lecture and readings the main theme that stood out to me is this apparent long-running desire to relate to one another our experiences of "the human condition".
To share thoughts on an experience the essayist must find 'a voice and tone appropriate to the topic, audience and situation' (Di Yanni, 2005, p. 7), and the same can be said for any Facebook user. In the lecture this week, Van Luyn (2013) spoke of the Facebook page as being a particular form of text genre. She highlighted that a Facebook post 'is intended for a particular discourse community'. This made me think about the discourse community I am part of on Facebook and how we too must use a voice and tone appropriate to topic, audience, and situation so as to ensure our posts are understood.
Van
Luyn (2013) also spoke about blogs and how they are an adaptation of the
diary. 'The diary has become one of the
most popular online genres to grace computer screens' wrote Laurie McNeill in
her article Diary 2.0? (2011, p. 313) and after reading the suggested blog for this week Depression Part 2 on blogspot Hyperbole and a Half (Brosh, 2013) I understand why - it feels so good to relate to someone's experiences when they are so similar to your own.
Reading an essay or a journal pre-internet days allowed you to relate to others, but Facebook status updates and blogs - due to the interconnected framework of their text genre - allow us to not just passively relate to others experiences, but comment on them and have our comments read. This gives readers a power we did not have in pre-internet days. I hope to get a chance to look into what this power means or can help to achieve!
Brosh, A. (2013, May 10). Depression Part 2. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://hyper
boleandahalf.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/depression-part-two.html
Di Yanni, R. (2005). Introduction: Reading and writing essays, in Twenty-five great essays
(pp. 1-30). New York, NY: Penguin Academics.
Mc Neill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. In C. Rowe & E. L. Wyss
(Eds.), Language and new media: Linguistic, cultural, and technological evolutions
(pp. 313-325). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place,
Lecture 6: Genre. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Reading an essay or a journal pre-internet days allowed you to relate to others, but Facebook status updates and blogs - due to the interconnected framework of their text genre - allow us to not just passively relate to others experiences, but comment on them and have our comments read. This gives readers a power we did not have in pre-internet days. I hope to get a chance to look into what this power means or can help to achieve!
References
Brosh, A. (2013, May 10). Depression Part 2. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://hyper
boleandahalf.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/depression-part-two.html
Di Yanni, R. (2005). Introduction: Reading and writing essays, in Twenty-five great essays
(pp. 1-30). New York, NY: Penguin Academics.
Mc Neill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. In C. Rowe & E. L. Wyss
(Eds.), Language and new media: Linguistic, cultural, and technological evolutions
(pp. 313-325). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place,
Lecture 6: Genre. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
This was a really good read Meg, your last paragraph gave me a lot to think about actually! Its interesting how our generation growing up essentially saw the platform of a diary as something private, for ourselves. But this idea came in only after the 1900’s, as before that McNiell (2011), states “the diary has always in practice contained a public element. Only in the 20th century did the diary become synonymous with secrecy and privacy”. Which is interesting because in some ways it appears that the diary/blog has come full circle. The element of power you talk about the last paragraph has essentially come back into being in terms of defining the characteristics of a diary/blog (or in this case, a facebook post). I wonder what the diaries next move will be!
ReplyDeleteReference:
Mc Neill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. In C. Rowe & E. L. Wyss. (pp. 313-325). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.