As you probably already know, there’s a fascinating thread about authenticity and truth in the selves we’re constructing via weblogs. This piece, late in the thread, by Burning Bird is a good place to start. And this piece by Jonathon Delacour is seminal.

I love this topic but I don’t see what’s specific to weblogging about it. Don’t the same questions apply whenever we talk? I have never told an anecdote or story that wasn’t fictitious in some sense. Except on the Web, our self is purely public and written, so we can’t fall back on the myth of the Inner Private Real person that allows us to act as if there’s the possibility of our “outer expressions” corresponding to our Inner Real Self. I.e., the false possibility of authenticity is closed off to us in the virtual world. (I’m burning to say more but I have to go out to a meeting. Ack!)

Categories: Uncategorized dw