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Paraphrasing from ‘Meanland: Reading Without Privacy’

Jacinda Woodhead December 02

The last Meanland session for 2010 was ‘Reading Without Privacy’. Hosted by The Wheeler Centre and chaired by Michael Williams, the session was a wide-ranging conversation about the use, application and consequences of the embracement of social media, particularly twitter, with writer, blogger and critic Alison Croggon; ABC Drum editor Jonathan Green; writer and editor Sophie Cunningham; and writer and editor Jeff Sparrow.

Today, we’re all reading and writing more than ever, on text messages, on Twitter and on Facebook. But has social networking broken down the distinction between our public and our private lives? What are the rules for writing in forms that are so intimate and entirely open? Do we Tweet as ourselves or as representatives of our employers? And is new media helping us work differently or just work harder?

(The following snatches of conversation were pieced together from hastily scrawled notes; please excuse the paraphrasing.)

Chair Michael Williams began by describing the universal spread of Twitter and the ways in which this was changing how we read and write.

Michael Williams: How do you use Twitter? Do you enjoy it? Is it work?

Jonathan Green (JG): I actually enjoy it. It’s a legitimate form of expression. It’s coherent, concise and good promotional stuff. I have 5000 followers, the Drum has 10 000 – that’s 15 000 eyeballs on a story.

Jeff Sparrow (JS): We are all haunted by the fear that everything is happening without us so many are motivated by anxiety – if you’re not on it, you’re missing out on something. I used to have an account with everything: tumblr, facebook, twitter, myspace, and then thought, if this is going to work (as a promotional tool for writing and the journal), I’m going to have to promote it.

Yes, there was a time when Overland was always hungover, or filled with pictures of chickens. Twitter is an aggregator of content. It also beats down the demarcation between work and leisure.

Alison Croggon (AC): I was always asking which hat am I wearing today. It was actually blog readers who encouraged me to join Twitter. The blog was taking too long, sometimes a show would be finished before I’d get the review up there. Readers wanted a way to know immediately, and I’ve found it a really useful tool. It took me somewhere unexpected and I now find my interests intersecting with the people I follow and the things I explore. But you can’t talk and tweet at the same time.

Sophie Cunningham (SC): For me, it was a professional thing, so I set up two accounts, one for Meanjin and one for me, a separation of Meanjin and @sophiec. My account is a locked account because I was conscious of privacy issues. I’ve found it quite a real experience: I’ve made friends, strengthened friendships, and had the beginnings of real conversations that have moved into longer conversations.

Twitter directs my reading, because I follow people who read similarly to me or find interesting stories. The inanity of Twitter, in my opinion, is no more so than that of inane conversations.



Read the rest over at Meanland.


 

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