Anyone and everyone
can be an author, anyone can publish their thoughts, and that is what our
generation does, using social media outlets such as Facebook, and every thought
is documented through status updates. Facebook has provided the vast majority
of the first world the ability and validation of saying anything the individual
wants. The problem created is lack of credible content. Every person on earth
has an opinion or a thought; the problem is that not all these thoughts are
diamonds. The Internet where it was once a place for facts has become flooded
with a lot of baseless, fact less data, put up anonymously, more often than
not, with no supporting evidence.
“The diary genre
comes to the Internet with a great deal of cultural baggage, loaded down with
popular perceptions that are not particularly flattering. Associated in the 20th
century with the intensely personal and confessional, the sorts of secrets that
should be hidden away under lock and key, the diary has been cast as an amateur
mode meant for the diarist’s eyes. The ordinary person, in ordinary
circumstances would not be likely to write, and certainly would be unable to
publish, a diary meant for a wide audience; indeed doing so would be read as
narcissistic or hubristic at worst; and at least generically valid.” (McNeill,
2011) The Internet has also blurred the lines of privacy. The concept has become
almost completely obsolete. As a profile page on Facebook provides every detail
of one’s life through a variety of mediums. While a traditional diary is
consisted of the written word, Facebook provides photographs, interest, and
lists of favorite movies, books, and television shows, as well as links to
other pages or videos. No thing is private anymore, “The internet diary, then,
is a genre overwritten with current and traditional expectations and needs of
it’s users.”(McNeill, 2011)
References:
v McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?. In C. Rowe, & E. L. Wyss (Eds.), Language
and New Media (pp. 315-323). NJ, United States: Hampton Press, INC.
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