Tuesday, October 28, 2008

As a Person of the Behavioral Sciences...

...I LOVE trying to better understand people by how and what they do in life. Why would someone choose to say one thing? Why would someone chose to act one way?

These have been fascinations of mine for many years -- it is percisely why I chose to go the route I did with my education. It's probably what's drove me to be the total over-thinker that I am in life -- I'm constantly thinking about things (and sometimes it causes me problems...HA!)

When considering the blog realm it's always interested me in what types of topics different people choose to write on on their blogs. Some people use their blogs mostly for sharing their life via photographs to their loved ones. Some people use their blog to give updates on what is going on in their life. Still others use their blog as a forum for topics of discussion. Whatever the case, I think you can learn a lot about a person through his/her blog. What they write about; how they write about it; as well as, how they setup their blog in order to write about it. I mean look at blogs designs -- one can create his/her blog layout that is personal for them. People choose who they want linked on their sidebar on their blog. They can also even choose who they want to be able to respond on their blog. So many ways to personalize one's blog.

For me, I can often find myself taking all of these sorts of things into consideration as I'm yearning to learn more about a person. Why would one choose to link an individual on their blog for a long time, then one day decide to not link them anymore? Is it that that person hasn't blogged in a while, so the person feels the link is a "dead-end" to send his/her readers, as the linked blog is no longer being updated? Or is it that the blog author feels the linked blog is not one they want associated with his/her blog anymore due to a disagreement in views or beliefs? So many possibilities.

What about comment moderation? Why would one choose to moderate who could comment on his/her blog? Does one not want cursing on their blog? Does one feel a need to have ultimate control? Does one fear if he/she does not "approve" each comment first, a comment might arise on his/her blog which one might disagree with? Does one find it hard to even listen to other views other than his/her own? Is one so set in his/her beliefs that anything that might stray from them is ultimately "wrong", thus it has no place among the "right"?

So much is left up to wonder when we look at people's actions in life. It's a sense of excitement for an individual like myself to question and wonder why we do what we do. I truly believe we all have some justification for all our actions, even if we are not consciously aware of it at the time of performance.

As for me...allow me to explain some parts of MY blog.

For instance, I offer a sidebar of links to individuals blogs on my blog. I've taken off different individuals' links to their blogs in the past. My justificiation for this action is that it's someone's blog that has become stagnant -- in that it is frequently, if ever updated. I referred to this earlier as the "dead-end" links.

As for comment moderation on my blog, you'll see I have none. What I've found interesting is that I've never had to use this function as I've always been open to accepting individual's comments on whatever topic I might happen to be addressing that day. Have I been careful to only post on topics I felt would not offer an array of opinions? Of course, not. I'm pretty sure if anyone was to venture out among my many posts on this blog, one would quickly learn that I've openly discussed many topics that bring out the most far right and left opinions on the matter. I've never been one to shy away from peoples' disagreements and differing opinions. Matter of fact, I love that sort of stuff. I enjoy a good debate.

Would I moderate my comments if someone started cussing? I don't believe so. I can't say I've had that, but I don't see how that would bother me, because if anything I would just see that as another opportunity to begin wondering why that person would choose to react in such a way. Why did that person feel the urge to use those words? I've definately had times in my life when I've cussed and I can look back on those times and understand what was going on with me at the time that lead me to use the words I did.

It's all just so intriguing to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never had to moderate comments, but I did have one post that got really outrageous responses. I was happy to get another opinion, but it did make my heart race (the people were basically tell me to eff off).

Moderating and approving comments kind of kills the conversation, but I know for some bigger bloggers it has to be done.

Holly said...

Girrrl! Do you realize it has been nearly TWO whole months since you updated your blog? Girrrl!