screaming into the darkness::11.22.2007+04:12
So, it has been about a month since I launched the shout experiment, and I figured that I should say something. I feel mildly reluctant to do this, but well, it’s not that bad to talk about it. Anyway, shout started out as a simple idea and an ache of mine to make a page that was very “Web 2.0”-ish (ugh) with rounded corners and whatnot. In some ways, the experiment is a jab at the ways in which the Internet makes us more disconnected socially.
The basic idea behind the project, is that everyone is anonymous, and they are given 100 characters every 12 hours to say whatever they want. It’s a basic exercising in brief of First Ammendment rights (at least in the United States). There is one request that I put forth, and that was that people couldn’t say stuff that had names or was considered defamation. I didn’t and don’t expect these to be followed. They’re merely guidelines. There is mild censorship, but in reality, it’s weak and there’s only one word that I really censor. Not that it matters anyway. Also, I know now about Post Secret. I had no clue that it even existed when I started this. So, I don’t particularly take kindly to people that point out similarities and what not, mostly because I am fully aware of them and don’t care to be reminded.
Anyway, on to the juicy stuff. The psychological impact that it has upon the people that use it. This information is from my own observations and from metagaming with some of the people that use it daily. The first observation, is that the current relatively small userbase causes a sense of paranoia in the users because of human nature to try to make things fit in places they don’t. Another thing is finding meaning that isn’t there. Some of the shouts are actually replies, and some just seem like them. Attempting to find any real correlation between two given shouts is ill-advised. I will admit to having posted responses just to say things opposite of what the expected answer is. Mostly, the general feeling that comes with the site is that it’s not a community at all. It really might as well be a Markov chain generator. Or course, there’s that whole possibility of interaction between users, so it’s a little different.
Overall, I think it’s been interesting. I’m looking for directions in which to take this before it ends in late May. I may just switch it over to my hosting provider rather than taking it entirely offline. In the meantime, I’m going to try to come up with nifty stuff to enhance the experience. One last thought, is that this would work better with a much larger user base and an available count of users because that’d reduce/eliminate paranoia.