2007.02.21
The psychology of this weblog
I’ve always more or less followed a set of unwritten rules about the articles I post to this weblog. Until now, I’ve never really taken a step back and examined those rules and their impact on the site. Nor have I singled out the exceptions to these rules for further dissection. It is now time to do both of those things.
As best as I can determine, here are the rules which I have been abiding by:
Rule 1: All content must be written by me, Jeremiah Wittevrongel.
Rule 2: I cannot post anything I would not freely acknowledge as my own.
Rule 3: I cannot post anything which is either illegal or would violate my own morals and ethics.
Rule 4: I cannot knowingly misrepresent myself.
Rule 5: I must adhere to W3 standards in the construction of this weblog.
These self-imposed rules all stem from a desire to take advantage of the Primacy and Recency effects. This weblog is the first result returned by Google whenever someone searches for “Jeremiah Wittevrongel”. It’s their first impression of my digital self. In addition, because the content on this weblog is presented in reverse chronological order, the first thing someone sees is going to be the most recent post on the weblog. Every post is thus doubled in importance from a psychological standpoint. Thus every post needs to accurately reflect myself while also seeking to leave a generally good first impression. All five rules target this goal. This is not a pseudonymous weblog; I publicly present all of the content as my own, and so I need to have some guidelines in place. Even something as simple as following W3 standards is important, since the technically-minded among my readers will take notice.
These rules do have an interesting effect, though. Certain topics are completely or mostly taboo on this weblog. A quick glance at the politics category indicates that this is so – I seldom choose to voice any sort of political opinion here. There are also several aspects to my life which receive absolutely no comment here, and I believe my reasons for this decision are sound.
This form of self-censorship raises an interesting question: by self-censoring, am I violating Rule 4? Is omission tantamount to misrepresentation? Or is this merely a by-product of the inevitable editing process? I’m leaning toward the latter, but perhaps not everyone agrees. There are a number many myspace profiles out there that reveal a lot more about their owners than this weblog does about me. In my opinion, some of them go too far in terms of personal information.
Perhaps it all boils down to this: since this is my weblog, I can set rules that I’m comfortable with. In and of themselves, the rules are representative of who I am. Within the framework they provide, I can feel comfortable about my content, and feel good about posting it. That’s what really matters.
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