Good morning!
I am about to go out and eat breakfast but I had heard that Purp couldn’t get to the article so I thought that I would post it for her and anyone else who might have missed it. Here is both the link and the text:
http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/0605/05blogger.html
The article is in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and it was written by reporter Gayle White.
Meg
Ranting for posterity
As online journals catch on, what's OK to say when millions might read it?Gayle White - StaffSunday, June 5, 2005In an earlier time, Meg Kelso might have telephoned a girlfriend or two, uncorked a bottle of wine and unloaded. That was before the Internet. Instead, in late January, with her marriage breaking up and her finances falling apart, Kelso sat down in her Marietta kitchen to blog. "Rick is a selfish, lying cheat," she wrote. With the strokes of her keyboard, Kelso joined an army of angry exes, embittered employees and rancorous relatives who air their grievances to a potential audience of millions. By late 2004, 7 percent of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet said they had created a blog --- short for Web log or online diary --- according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That's more than 8 million people. Four times as many --- about 32 million Americans --- said they read blogs, according to the Pew study. Although some people are posting innocuous information about everything from politics to poetry, many bloggers have axes to grind online. The full legal, ethical and interpersonal implications of these virtual vendettas are just beginning to be explored. "My sense is that every dimension of life is being blogged now --- divorce, marriage, death, pets, triumphs on the Little League field," said Lee Raine, director of the Pew project. "The rules of the road, the rules of etiquette are being challenged by the ease with which people can do things that used to be appropriate only for whispers between two people. Now those whispers can be broadcast around the world." Said Raine, "It's hard to describe how transformative this is of human relations." People have formed relationships and lost jobs over Internet postings. In 2002, Heather Armstrong, now a Salt Lake City mom, was fired as a Web designer after posting catty, cranky and sometimes crass accounts of life at her unnamed company. The name of her blog --- dooce --- took on a life of its own as a verb that means to be fired over one's online activity. This year, Armstrong's blog is getting publicity of a different sort. Dooce took four Bloggies --- awards for blogs --- at the fifth annual ceremony held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Among the honors was Best American Blog. Armstrong's blog reflects changes in her circumstances from her single days in Los Angeles to her life as a married mother in Utah. "I talk a lot about poop, boobs, my dog, and my daughter," she said in her online description of her blog. Angry now, sorry later? Although Meg Kelso's site is much newer, it also is evolving and gaining a following. It now logs in about 1,000 hits a day. "I myself am also going through a divorce, so that was my main reason for checking out the blog to begin with," said Michelle Riggs, 33, of Humble, Texas. "After reading a few of the posts, I realized that Meg is articulate and very funny. . . . I look forward to reading her updates, and try to every day, if I get the chance." Kelso sums up her version of her life on the Web site's tag line: "I married Rick Kelso, he cheated on me, hit me and took the car with him leaving me stranded and to fend for myself. I spent most of my adult life on him and all I got was this stupid computer." Rick Kelso denies the violence and adultery, and he counters with accusations of infidelity against his wife. Meg, he said, "is a very vindictive woman when she gets mad at somebody." Meg, a 46-year-old aspiring comedian and writer, said she didn't set out to create a virtual community. "I didn't realize people surfed blogs," she said. Had she realized how many people might see her postings, she said, she might have "not been so nasty" with unflattering descriptions of Rick's anatomy and personal hygiene. Such second thoughts are a consequence of posting on the Internet, said Emory University law professor Anita Bernstein. "Blogging is fast, like speech, but permanent, like writing," she said. "The combination can be dangerous." Still, Meg shrugs off her early bloggings with a c'est la vie attitude. "There's nothing I can do about it now," she said. 'Not a private little game' Meg and Rick Kelso, an electronics technician, met at the age of 24, about seven months after both had ended previous marriages. Both were "gun-shy," said Meg, and they dated for six years before marrying when they were 30. Rick left a few days after their 16th wedding anniversary last fall, and Meg filed for divorce in Cobb County Superior Court on Dec. 13, 2004. The charges fly between the couple in court documents and conversation. And for Meg, in cyberspace. For people who feel wronged in a relationship, blogging fills two needs --- "to vent, and to let the world know what a jerk she thinks the guy is," said Rebecca Blood, author of "The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog" (Perseus Books, $14). But Blood, who has blogged since 1999, warns that in these days when future bosses or boyfriends can quickly Google a name, "people need to remember this is not a private little game they're playing. It has a real world effect on them and the person they're writing about." Institutions from schools to corporations are also having to figure out how to apply their policies to Internet activity. Former Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti of Austin filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Oct. 8, 2004, charging sexual discrimination after she was suspended for posting "inappropriate" photos of herself in uniform on her blog. She charged that Delta had failed to fire men who posted pictures of themselves in uniform online. "It was a total double standard," said Simonetti, who was fired Oct. 29 and is still unemployed. Delta spokeswoman Benet Wilson would say only that Simonetti "is no longer working for the company." Simonetti said her EEOC complaint is pending. A recording of her supervisor's telephone call dismissing her is now posted on her blog. All the possible legal ramifications to blogging may not be established for years. "There's a tremendous body of existing law all over the world about what people can and cannot do when they publish," the Pew project's Raine said. "Libel laws, slander laws, community standards laws, laws that prohibit certain information from being purveyed to children, laws against hate speech. The big question is which of those existing laws and regulations apply to this new world." No ethics code, oversight Blogging escalated in popularity during the 2004 presidential race, when political blogs sometimes seemed to drive the news and provide rallying cries for special interest groups. In that atmosphere, "blog" was the most-looked-up word on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary last year. Among those checking out the word was Meg Kelso, who said she first heard the word during the campaign. The blogosphere is a kind of free-for-all, said Steve Jones, professor of communications at the University of Illinois in Chicago. "There's not a code of ethics," he said. "There's not any form of oversight or supervision. There's not any sort of governing body or society that would watch what bloggers do or train them. . . . That's what makes it so interesting." At first, Meg Kelso said, her blog served mostly as an outlet for her anger at Rick. "As time's gone by, I don't obsess or focus that way anymore," she said. "I more or less bring up issues . . . or I'm responding to something a reader has asked." This interaction between blogger and reader is an important component to blogging, according to three California social scientists who wrote a paper called "Blogging as Social Activity, or, Would You Let 900 Million People Read Your Diary?" Bonnie A. Nardi, Diane J. Schiano and Michelle Gumbrecht describe blogs as "a studied minuet between blogger and audience" and said some blogs shift seamlessly between very personal reflections and conversation addressed to observers. "We learned," they wrote, "that blogs create the audience, but the audience also creates the blog." Meg Kelso said she doesn't know whether the blog and her newfound readers have helped her evolve, or whether the blog reflects the evolution that could have happened anyway. Many of her recent postings are about men she is dating. But those earlier slams at Rick live on in her blog and in links to it. Within 72 hours of her first posting, her site had been picked up by Cruel.com, a Web site that glorifies meanness, much of it unsuitable for children, grandmothers and others of fragile sensibility. "Divorce is good fodder for Cruel.com," said Rogers Cadenhead, 38, a Fort Worth, Texas, author who founded the site in 1996. If Meg Kelso wants to talk about her divorce, said Cadenhead, "that's between her, her ex-husband and the world." But Cadenhead said he would never consider blogging about his personal relationships, and hopes his wife wouldn't, either. "One of the reasons I have a happy marriage is that I'd be afraid of what she'd say about me on the Web if we broke up," he said. "I guess Rick Kelso would know that better than anybody."
BLOGGING BY THE NUMBERS8 million: Number of Americans who have created a blog32 million: Number of Americans who read blogs14.4 million: Number of Americans who have posted material on blogs35.6 million: Number of Americans who aren't sure what "blog" meansSource: Pew Internet & American Life Project, November 2004 surveyWHO BLOGS> 57 percent are men.> 48 percent are under 30.> 82 percent have been online six years or more.> 42 percent live in households earning more than $50,000.> 39 percent have college or graduate degrees.
I am about to go out and eat breakfast but I had heard that Purp couldn’t get to the article so I thought that I would post it for her and anyone else who might have missed it. Here is both the link and the text:
http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/0605/05blogger.html
The article is in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and it was written by reporter Gayle White.
Meg
Ranting for posterity
As online journals catch on, what's OK to say when millions might read it?Gayle White - StaffSunday, June 5, 2005In an earlier time, Meg Kelso might have telephoned a girlfriend or two, uncorked a bottle of wine and unloaded. That was before the Internet. Instead, in late January, with her marriage breaking up and her finances falling apart, Kelso sat down in her Marietta kitchen to blog. "Rick is a selfish, lying cheat," she wrote. With the strokes of her keyboard, Kelso joined an army of angry exes, embittered employees and rancorous relatives who air their grievances to a potential audience of millions. By late 2004, 7 percent of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet said they had created a blog --- short for Web log or online diary --- according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That's more than 8 million people. Four times as many --- about 32 million Americans --- said they read blogs, according to the Pew study. Although some people are posting innocuous information about everything from politics to poetry, many bloggers have axes to grind online. The full legal, ethical and interpersonal implications of these virtual vendettas are just beginning to be explored. "My sense is that every dimension of life is being blogged now --- divorce, marriage, death, pets, triumphs on the Little League field," said Lee Raine, director of the Pew project. "The rules of the road, the rules of etiquette are being challenged by the ease with which people can do things that used to be appropriate only for whispers between two people. Now those whispers can be broadcast around the world." Said Raine, "It's hard to describe how transformative this is of human relations." People have formed relationships and lost jobs over Internet postings. In 2002, Heather Armstrong, now a Salt Lake City mom, was fired as a Web designer after posting catty, cranky and sometimes crass accounts of life at her unnamed company. The name of her blog --- dooce --- took on a life of its own as a verb that means to be fired over one's online activity. This year, Armstrong's blog is getting publicity of a different sort. Dooce took four Bloggies --- awards for blogs --- at the fifth annual ceremony held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Among the honors was Best American Blog. Armstrong's blog reflects changes in her circumstances from her single days in Los Angeles to her life as a married mother in Utah. "I talk a lot about poop, boobs, my dog, and my daughter," she said in her online description of her blog. Angry now, sorry later? Although Meg Kelso's site is much newer, it also is evolving and gaining a following. It now logs in about 1,000 hits a day. "I myself am also going through a divorce, so that was my main reason for checking out the blog to begin with," said Michelle Riggs, 33, of Humble, Texas. "After reading a few of the posts, I realized that Meg is articulate and very funny. . . . I look forward to reading her updates, and try to every day, if I get the chance." Kelso sums up her version of her life on the Web site's tag line: "I married Rick Kelso, he cheated on me, hit me and took the car with him leaving me stranded and to fend for myself. I spent most of my adult life on him and all I got was this stupid computer." Rick Kelso denies the violence and adultery, and he counters with accusations of infidelity against his wife. Meg, he said, "is a very vindictive woman when she gets mad at somebody." Meg, a 46-year-old aspiring comedian and writer, said she didn't set out to create a virtual community. "I didn't realize people surfed blogs," she said. Had she realized how many people might see her postings, she said, she might have "not been so nasty" with unflattering descriptions of Rick's anatomy and personal hygiene. Such second thoughts are a consequence of posting on the Internet, said Emory University law professor Anita Bernstein. "Blogging is fast, like speech, but permanent, like writing," she said. "The combination can be dangerous." Still, Meg shrugs off her early bloggings with a c'est la vie attitude. "There's nothing I can do about it now," she said. 'Not a private little game' Meg and Rick Kelso, an electronics technician, met at the age of 24, about seven months after both had ended previous marriages. Both were "gun-shy," said Meg, and they dated for six years before marrying when they were 30. Rick left a few days after their 16th wedding anniversary last fall, and Meg filed for divorce in Cobb County Superior Court on Dec. 13, 2004. The charges fly between the couple in court documents and conversation. And for Meg, in cyberspace. For people who feel wronged in a relationship, blogging fills two needs --- "to vent, and to let the world know what a jerk she thinks the guy is," said Rebecca Blood, author of "The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog" (Perseus Books, $14). But Blood, who has blogged since 1999, warns that in these days when future bosses or boyfriends can quickly Google a name, "people need to remember this is not a private little game they're playing. It has a real world effect on them and the person they're writing about." Institutions from schools to corporations are also having to figure out how to apply their policies to Internet activity. Former Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti of Austin filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Oct. 8, 2004, charging sexual discrimination after she was suspended for posting "inappropriate" photos of herself in uniform on her blog. She charged that Delta had failed to fire men who posted pictures of themselves in uniform online. "It was a total double standard," said Simonetti, who was fired Oct. 29 and is still unemployed. Delta spokeswoman Benet Wilson would say only that Simonetti "is no longer working for the company." Simonetti said her EEOC complaint is pending. A recording of her supervisor's telephone call dismissing her is now posted on her blog. All the possible legal ramifications to blogging may not be established for years. "There's a tremendous body of existing law all over the world about what people can and cannot do when they publish," the Pew project's Raine said. "Libel laws, slander laws, community standards laws, laws that prohibit certain information from being purveyed to children, laws against hate speech. The big question is which of those existing laws and regulations apply to this new world." No ethics code, oversight Blogging escalated in popularity during the 2004 presidential race, when political blogs sometimes seemed to drive the news and provide rallying cries for special interest groups. In that atmosphere, "blog" was the most-looked-up word on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary last year. Among those checking out the word was Meg Kelso, who said she first heard the word during the campaign. The blogosphere is a kind of free-for-all, said Steve Jones, professor of communications at the University of Illinois in Chicago. "There's not a code of ethics," he said. "There's not any form of oversight or supervision. There's not any sort of governing body or society that would watch what bloggers do or train them. . . . That's what makes it so interesting." At first, Meg Kelso said, her blog served mostly as an outlet for her anger at Rick. "As time's gone by, I don't obsess or focus that way anymore," she said. "I more or less bring up issues . . . or I'm responding to something a reader has asked." This interaction between blogger and reader is an important component to blogging, according to three California social scientists who wrote a paper called "Blogging as Social Activity, or, Would You Let 900 Million People Read Your Diary?" Bonnie A. Nardi, Diane J. Schiano and Michelle Gumbrecht describe blogs as "a studied minuet between blogger and audience" and said some blogs shift seamlessly between very personal reflections and conversation addressed to observers. "We learned," they wrote, "that blogs create the audience, but the audience also creates the blog." Meg Kelso said she doesn't know whether the blog and her newfound readers have helped her evolve, or whether the blog reflects the evolution that could have happened anyway. Many of her recent postings are about men she is dating. But those earlier slams at Rick live on in her blog and in links to it. Within 72 hours of her first posting, her site had been picked up by Cruel.com, a Web site that glorifies meanness, much of it unsuitable for children, grandmothers and others of fragile sensibility. "Divorce is good fodder for Cruel.com," said Rogers Cadenhead, 38, a Fort Worth, Texas, author who founded the site in 1996. If Meg Kelso wants to talk about her divorce, said Cadenhead, "that's between her, her ex-husband and the world." But Cadenhead said he would never consider blogging about his personal relationships, and hopes his wife wouldn't, either. "One of the reasons I have a happy marriage is that I'd be afraid of what she'd say about me on the Web if we broke up," he said. "I guess Rick Kelso would know that better than anybody."
BLOGGING BY THE NUMBERS8 million: Number of Americans who have created a blog32 million: Number of Americans who read blogs14.4 million: Number of Americans who have posted material on blogs35.6 million: Number of Americans who aren't sure what "blog" meansSource: Pew Internet & American Life Project, November 2004 surveyWHO BLOGS> 57 percent are men.> 48 percent are under 30.> 82 percent have been online six years or more.> 42 percent live in households earning more than $50,000.> 39 percent have college or graduate degrees.
posted by Meg Kelso | 4:11 AM
2 Comments:
you're welcome! I turned my mom onto your blog, and while she enjoys the internet she's kind of a technophobe (i.e. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what hyperlink means, and I didn't think that she'd know to copy/paste the missing part of the address into the browser window to access the article) which is why I pasted the article into comments for her to be able to read.
was also checking out how it was to post anonymously -- felt kind of impersonal (without being james bond on the IP address, can you guess who I am?)
Anon,
LOL, well, I am not the one who finds the IP's so I will have to guess, but I am not alone right now, I will try to guess tomorrow when I get home...don't say anything, I WANT to guess! I love a good mystery.
Check you out in the AM!
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