Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: plain writing (was Online bits are forever)
Author: Dave Rogers Posted: 9/15/2000; 4:26:37 PM Topic: Discuss by email? Msg #: 21369 (In response to 21341) Prev/Next: 21368 / 21370
What about identity?This is the issue that troubles me more than the loss of any presumed 'privacy' due to the internet, it's the easy access to anonymity. To my thinking, words are a form of currency and to know something of their value, one should know something of the mind of the person who uttered them.
Of course, our identities, who we are, are far more than the sum of all the things we say or write or even do. I don't think it's possible to truly know everything about another person, inasmuch as it's very difficult to even know everything about one's self. We're constantly changing, some faster than others.
But if we know something of another's identity, their role in life, how long they've lived, some of the events that may have helped shape their identity, then we can better weigh the value of their words.
Of course, one might offer, "out of the mouths of babes..." and I would be the first to agree that a particular background is no requirement for being able to perceive truth, as closely as we may perceive it, and to share it. But to know that someone has personally experienced something, or that a person is inclined to speaking after reflection, or even from the hip, anything we know of their life and identity, does help us choose how to weigh their words.
Without this, we may have any number of interesting conversations, but they would be, to me, the equivalent of junk food.
Just MHO. (Interesting, mho - the unit of conductivity.)
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