AOL Journals: Magic Smoke

Monday, November 7, 2005
4:44:00 PM EST
Hearing Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville Alright, so this wasn't supposed to be another jeremiad on the challenges we face with integrating blogging into society.

It was supposed to be a light-hearted followup to my "Won't Someone Think of the Children?" entry, illustrating the potential risk of revealing too much personal info online by pointing to one of my favorite comic strips:

This is an excerpt of Sunday's Pearls Before Swine, where Zebra explains how he blogs about avoiding the attacks of his crocodile neighbors, who are trying to eat him.

This information is very popular with other Zebras, for obvious reasons.

But what happens if the crocodiles find out? You'll have to view the comic to get the punch line. [Update: The comic is no longer accessible, so I'll spill the punch line: The crocs are too dumb to figure out how to use the computer, which is not necessarily a luxury you'll have when you blog.]

I was reminded of something said by commenter reachingperfect, who explained how some teens he knew suddenly lost interest in blogging when their English teacher started reading and commenting in their blogs. (Presumeably, until they created password-protected blogs.)

Part of what's going on here is the old "look at me/don't look at me!" dynamic, where you want to be out there and you want people to see what you have to say -- you just don't want the wrong people to see (where the "wrong people" is an ever-changing and growing list of people that could include your mom, your mortal enemy, your friend you made snarky comments about, your future employer, your parole officer, your high school classmates who you made "terroristic threats about", etc.)

However, information is information, and it can be used by all kinds of people -- good, bad and indifferent.

There was a story last week (as seen in Blog Herald) about how a killer may -- very important, this is speculative -- have used info on his victim's blog to track her.

Now, again, we don't want to overreact to things that could possibly happen if the bad people see your blog. But we also don't want to understate things.

I mean, the Terminator used the phone book to slaughter a bunch of Sarah Connors, but you have to judge for yourself if you want to get an unlisted phone number to protect yourself from time-traveling cyborg assassins.

Similarly, if you're a murderer, or at least planning a murder, you probably don't want to write about it in your blog, unlike this Japanese high schooler and suspected mother-poisoner. (via Waxy.org)

Anyway, I want to end this entry on a positive note, so I will also how the blogosphere is also good at unmasking deceit, such as a David Cross impersonator, who uses his resemblance to comedian and 'Arrested Development' star David Cross to score free drinks and starstruck co-eds (though fellow comedian Susie Felber notes that it was probably less the co-eds and more the drinks.)

Included for your reference is Gawker's Guide to Telling David Cross Imposters, featuring tips from the man himself.

Talk to you later. Thanks. -- Joe

Tag: Busted for Blogging

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This entry has 32 comments: (Add your own)

• #32 Comment from louelladees 
  12/10/05 1:54 PM | Permalink

  loved your croc piece :) Hooray for the Zebra's
  
• #31 Comment from journalseditorEntry Author 
  11/21/05 10:21 AM | Permalink

  Darnit, talk about closing the barn door after the horses are out -- if anyone is wondering, here is my blog entry regarding getting busted for blogging:
  http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/821
  Sorry for the mistake. -- Joe
• #30 Comment from zoolaboola 
  11/21/05 4:13 AM | Permalink

  I have a perfect connection between facebook and drinking in the dorms.  First off, it seems that the first reply got deleted.  Secondly, an RA at my school decided for some odd reason to document some students because there was a picture that seemed to be set in the hall of a wet dorm with certain containers and red cups.  I think that these pictures came from a MySpace account which one student had linked to through FaceBook.  No one was actually drinking in the pictures, but it was enough for them to be documented.  There was a big hullabaloo about it and even a forum event on campus where students could ask questions of the administration.  What was worse is that the students that were in this situation were foreign exchange students and most of them were 21.  The rule is that you can't consume around anyone that is under 21 and rules are rules and there is no way around them.  The big controversy is about something that does not give diffinitive proof (proof of location or consumption in this case), such as a digital picture (which can be altered or set up), be used as evidence.  As I've always understood it, you only have to face consequence if you're caught in the act, and pictures are always post-act.  Too bad my school is full of Nazi admin like that RA and the director of student conduct.  So sad that some kids had to get in trouble over some circumstantial evidence.
• #29 Comment from ali3nbug 
  11/21/05 1:49 AM | Permalink

  What does this have to do with dorm drinking?
• #28 Comment from firstfruitslaf 
  11/21/05 1:26 AM | Permalink

  Holy Lord, what about the dorm drinking??

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