New Signatures

Leaving a comment on a blog post can be a strange occasion. There are always people who are fain to leaving their comments. As if their opinion mattered. Some comments are good some are bad, some are compliments some are insults, some try to be humorous some are serious... There are all kinds of comments but the thing they have in common is the fact that you never know the people who writhe them. The chat-room, news portal, blog and You Tube comments are anonymous. Yes people can be signed with their real names but that does not help much because you do not know the person.

A famous literate compared these comments to the ones people leave in public toilets. He was right they are the same. If you look at their meanings and rhetoric you can not separate ones from the others. They are all written in the same sphere both private and public.

Although it was meant so the comparison is not necessarily negative. People express themselves in various ways. The trouble is not knowing who is behind the writhing. It is a situation like when you change your mobile telephone device and lose your contacts list so now you are communicating with a number. When you know who is behind the number (who it belongs to) you can communicate appropriately. When you do not...

One of the problems in modern communication is that you can never be sure who is on the other side. This is not a new problem in communications. In history that is why people started using signatures and stamps. The signature is a very powerful tool. It means the person is behind the statements. When you sign your name you validate what is written. Even today the traditional signature is a much desired institution. Its notability can be best regarded in the legal system.

In online communication that is anonymous you do not know who is behind the words. That is why such statements can be loose and rude but it gives the liberty to say something what otherwise might not been said. Whether this is good or bad is not the question. Some people have the need to express something they can not stand behind. It should not be taken to seriously. Serious comes with a signature and a stamp.

Still when you communicate with someone you need to have some assurance your communicating with the right person. This is a trouble new media struggled with a long time. How do you stand behind something in an online environment. Is online communication doomed to frivolity. Because serious comes with a signature.

That may be the reason why more and more people are attracted to communication through social network sites. What is a SNS profile if not a signature. It is not just signed by the profile information but by visual material and a contact network. In other words on MySpace, Facebook... your friends list stands behind you confirming your identity.

As do Donath and Boyd write "public displays of connection present the center of identity performance and are typically viewed as a signal of the reliability of one's identity claims" (2006: 73).

So how can posting a comment on a blog be a strange occasion. When you recognize someone you know from a comment in a strange place, on a blog you even did not know the other person reads. When you read the signature although it isn't there. It happened to me once on a popular blog, not a place were you would expect to find someone you know. I read the comment and thought "it's like ... wrote this, that's his thinking". The strange thing was it later turned out to be true.