Week 4 Topic 1 Blanchard (d)

I do not agree with Kollocks and Smith statement that Lurkers ‘are generally viewed negatively by many researchers because they do not actively contribute to the virtual community’. I think that this idea described in Blanchard’s piece contradicts some of the ideas that have been presented in the previous weeks about how people can use the internet. For example, Turkle’s idea that you are allowed freedom on the internet, but the idea that you must give an input, criticises this, it is saying that people should be controlled and forced to give an opinion, when maybe they do not have one. Also, the idea of personas criticises this, people can still put on a persona and decide that they will ‘watch’ rather than ‘take part’ because they feel like they want to seem quieter on the internet than what they do in real life. This is the opposite to all of the ideas written about personas. Lister normally talks about a shy person gaining confidence on the internet and consequently speaking up more, there is no regard to a louder person who wants to observe the internet. I think with the internet being viewed as an ‘open architecture’ and there is no control on the net, people can take from it as they wish. If this means reading a forum to gain knowledge or viewing other people’s opinion then that is fair enough, people don’t always need to have an opinion on everything. In society, there is always going to be people who do not want to speak out as much as others, and by having these people on online communities it is just a development of the communities IRL. Do you agree?