It is impossible to talk about blogosphere and not about flaming – generally a result of bloggers taking their disagreement online. Originally a phenomenon on discussion boards / forums, in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or even through e-mail, flaming exists before blogging became popular. Flaming has found its way into blogosphere because blogging provided the best platform for voicing one’s own grievances.

In one’s own blog, there is almost absolute freedom compared to IRC channels or forums. Most of the time postings will only be censored / removed either under one’s own volition, or when someone threatens legal action against the blogger and the host. The blogger also have greater reach in terms of an audience compared to emails as everything will be in the public domain visible to anyone who visits the blog. It also provides the one place where the blogger becomes judge, prosecutor and executioner all rolled into one, a cyberspace kangaroo court where the blogger conduct a public trial without giving the opponent the benefit of offering points in defense with the reader as the jury. In most cases the target will always be guilty of whatever charges leveled against them on a blog.

Flaming thus become a part and parcel of blogging. One can find bloggers flaming even their parents or siblings over the most miniscule matters. For e.g. scolding a parent for taking the blogger’s favorite bath towel on a trip, or a brother depriving the blogger time on the Wii. These dramatic personalities may thus bring a lot of attention to themselves but yet they are unwary on the image they are presenting to the general public.

Beyond their immediate family, bloggers have been known to flame their teachers, friends, colleagues, bosses, employers, close associates and even mere acquaintances. It doesn’t matter they have at their disposal, email, sms, instant messaging and mobile phone to settle their differences over the matter, the readers will serve as the jury and determine the guilt of the other party. What is worse, is like the leaders in Beijing, the ‘flamed’ person may not even be aware of the charges laid against him even though the entire world has heard about it. Complete with the sentiment and emotions of the bloggers, the true facts may have been distorted and exaggerated beyond recognition. For e.g. a girl blogging about her work pressures may end up being read as being bullied by her colleagues or boss, triggering a negative reaction from the readers against those people who might otherwise be innocent.

So, when bloggers have no qualms about flaming family and friends in public, neither would strangers be spared. It should never come as a surprise when someone flames out of the blue over a blog post. Flaming may come in the form of a post on another blog, or readers’ comments. Reacting badly to such trolls is often unwise, as many high profile bloggers found their reputation tarnished by doing so. It is the same as Eric Cantona’s drop kick against a Crystal Palace FC fan, and many people today still remember him for this act, and not his brilliance in soccer as evident in the video below.

In fact, it might be true that flaming is especially rampant among Singapore netizens ever since Internet access become availabe in Singapore. After all, Minister George Yeo made the following statement a decade ago:

Is it a surprise why the governmnet gahmen had never given much regard to opinion on the Internet, nor placed very much effort in engaging netizens (especially bloggers)? It is quite laughable whenever I hear accusation of attempts at gahmen control because it has been more than a decade since the gahmen has taken notice of Internet as a new form of media. While it doesn’t mean that they won’t start doing so as the Internet continues to evolve, can the conspiracy theorists at least pinpoint the exact incident(s) that would cause a radical shift in the gahmen’s view, please? After all, even Zeitgeist had something quite convincingly as far as their conspiracy theory is concerned.

It does not take much imagination to surmise that any reputable corporations or organisations will thus also hold our local blogosphere in low regard even though they might have already started engaging bloggers in the U.S. or Europe. That says a lot about the quality of the work produced by local netizens and while some PR people might perhaps even have lamented about the dismal state of social media in Singapore, they are quite mistaken in talking about the alleged (and probably mutual) theft of ideas among proponents of social media and the backstabbing which I wondered whether that may not actually be more of a norm (and a problem?) in their own industry instead.

After all, the public image of local cyberspace as a whole, if not blogosphere itself, already needs a lot of brushing up. That’s not mentioning it is nothing more than talking cock for some of these people promoting social media, when some of them jumps in the bandwagon to flame without amicably resolving conflicts on their own.

Just how could some of these people solve this problem when they are part of the problem themselves is beyond me!

Recommended Reads:
Endoh’s Dungeon: The high expectations required of the association

Quote of the day:
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)