Daily Archives: May 23, 2003

gossip blogging

Gossip columns have appeared everywhere from the local rag to the grocery store trash to the elite magazines. People love to talk about other people. Thus, it should come of no surprise that there’s a whole genre of blogging dedicated exclusively to gossip.

Once again, i have to ponder how digital searchability will affect the social impact of this new form. While we may one day forget the atrocious outfit of some celebrity as reported in Vanity Fair, how will we judge those famous folks as a collection of their appearance in gossip blogs? Needless to say, i imagine that most gossip is going to be slanted, and most likely in the derrogatory direction. What happens when most of our impressions are based on negative hearsay?

Blog certainly create fun new ways to screw with social dynamics…

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graduation groaning

It’s graduation season. Every year i think all of these wonderful thoughts about graduations – fun robes, academia in the spring time, joy and glory and happiness. And then i remember that i *despise* graduations, because they also mean families running around stressed about participating in a massive activity that never lives up to anyone’s expectations. Magnify that by really horrid student speeches about embracing the future or dreadful politicians campaigning masked as commencement speaking and you have a recipe for my irritation. Needless to say, i was a cranky graduation attendee this evening and luckily my brother sympathized.

What made this graduation special was that RIT still doesn’t seem to understand that the majority figure in statistics is not always the most interesting. Three years ago, RIT proudly printed t-shirts which stated that 92% of RIT guys stop sexual advances when they’re asked. At graduation, the president proudly announced that 67% of RIT students believe that racial diversity is a good thing for RIT. Does the idea that 8% of the campus population are self-described rapists and 33% are racists not disturb the administration?

Of course, there were many other aggrevating parts of the graduation process, but this… this topped the cake.