Weblogsky wants to know if there has been something lost in the move from cloistered virtual communities such as the Well and TMN to the balkanized blogosphere. My answer is yes.
TMN was a safe village in which I could walk late at night and leave my door not only unlocked but open. Secrets were shared and trust was kept and there were private places wherein I could share even more innermost innermosts.
The blogosphere, on the other hand, is big city and feeds on naive innocents — you had better watch what you say and to whom. If you have anything of value, you had better lock your door and learn some street smarts otherwise the blogosphere like a big city could chew you up and spit you out, like it has done to so many who just got off the bus.
Like every urbanite knows, once you get your savvy, then everything is fun again. I didn’t need to be savvy on TMN. I cut my teeth in a very safe place.
The blogosphere is fun but it ain’t safe.
Thanks to del.icio.us/tag/unmediated by way of unmediated
