6-1: We are the Leviathan

I thought I would look at an online social norm dealing with something that directly affects all of us: blog comments. Comments made on blogs are supposed to convey a particular message to the writer of the blog and any other reader of that blog. In many cases, these responses can be very passionate and exaggerated. With people on the Internet from so many different walks of life, a set-up like this with no Leviathan would be a disaster. Not to take a completely cynical view on human beings, but there would be far fewer qualms in ripping anonymous bloggers apart, leaving spam comments, and littering messages with vulgar language. However, depending on the blogging community, there is a social standard of decency and respectfulness in blog comments.

In the COMM 245 blog community, Professor Hancock sets this standard. He explicitly informed us that all comments must be positive and constructive, and if these criteria were not met, we would lose points or even be expelled from the course. Professor Hancock is an obvious form of a Leviathan in this course. However, he is not the only one. We are Leviathan’s to each other. Anyone who posted a comment that is out of line would get “the arched brow” from other members of the blog. They would be reprimanded by other members of the class, as well as the teacher, and forced to rescind their comment or apologize for it. This is magnified because all of our user names are our full names so there is no hiding from anything we post on the blog site. No one wants to post a mean comment on someone’s assignment and have to deal with them the next day. We are bound to conform to these standards by how we want our classmates to view us in person. This also fits into the hyperpersonal model as we are selectively self-presenting to enhance our image.

Our blog is a special case because we all know there is at least a possibly of knowing each other in person. This isn’t the case in most online blogs. However, the peer-to-peer Leviathan still exists even though there is no potential Face-to-Face interaction governing it. A recent example I saw was on a blog posting on chicagotribune.com about the Cubs playoff game times. Many fans complained about the inconvenient start times, but anytime someone would use profanity or “shout” by using capital letters, the next few people who commented would arch the brow and ask them to tone it down or stop littering the cite with useless comments. Another interesting dynamic was every once in a while a White Sox fans would post on the blog about how the playoff games didn’t matter because the Cubs were going to lose anyway and then a number of commenters would immediately jump on that person and tell them to go to their own blog or taunt them for not even making the playoffs. This is an instance when group members remind the offender in a not so gentle way, as Wallace put it. They were protecting their group identity as Cubs fans. Either way, commenters want the blog to succeed and for many commenters to keep posting; therefore they voluntarily agree to conform to certain norms and fight to enforce those norms. As Wallace says, “We can relinquish certain freedoms for orderliness.” Plus, you can never underestimate the solidarity of Cubs fans.

http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/10/6-parental-controls-pre-mtv-style.html#comment-8318950019817202440
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/10/truth-v-truthiness.html#comment-6473926203918181473