Ethical Blog Reading by Randy Cohen

Randy "Ethicist" Cohen was faced with a blog-related question yesterday on NPR (listen to the June 22 segment): Guest host Joe Palca and Cohen discuss the dilemma of a man who has stumbled across his friend's very personal Web log. Is a blog considered as private as a diary is? If so, should he refrain from reading it any further?

What the blurb fails to mention is that the man, "Sean from the Midwest," feels uncomfortable because it seems his friend, the blogger, has a crush on him - feelings that would be unrequited. Cohen of course says that the Internet is fair game and that Sean should not feel bad for reading his friend's blog, plus postulates that the blog was a low-risk way for the girl to get her feelings out there, in hopes Sean would read it, and act on it if interested and be tactful if not. That's exactly what blogs were made for: Developing, fostering, documenting and destroying crushes.

A Media Bistro interview with Randy Cohen, whose daughter has a blog. (We haven't found it...yet. She goes to Stuy. We're thinking it's along the lines of "God, my dad was ethicizing way too much yesterday...") Cohen has also worked with McSweeney's, using them as a think tank of sorts.

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By Jen Chung in Arts and Events on June 23, 2003 12:03 PM

Comments [rss]

Cheshire

Um, apparently "??1/4??\" is elite-speak for "Good to know..." I hadn't seen that one in any of the L337 5P34K compendia.

johnny

I thought it was a guy initially as well,

but i think that might have less to do with the gender inequality of blogs, but rather too much Jerry Springer.

jake

when i first read this piece, i assumed that his friend was a guy- i guess i assume all bloggers are guys unless otherwise told. i wish blogger came in a male and female form- like blogger for boys, blog-gal for girls.

Jen

Rachel, you bring up a good point. Gothamist needs to go to school for "Keeping Our Mouths Shut 101."

Rachel

I didn't listen to the interview but I think that we really have far less "privacy" than we think we do. Not in the government-spying sense, but whether it's a blog that's meant to be private (which seems to be an oxymoron) or a secret told to a trusted friend, you never really know where your words/feelings/secrets will wind up, so I think if you truly do not want someone to know something, just don't tell anyone.

The guy would likely have found out sooner or later I'd imagine that his friend had a crush on him.