In the study of group conformity, Thomas Hobbes believed that a “Leviathan” was a “mortal god, to which we owe under the immortal God; our peace and defence.” Thus, the Leviathan is an authority that is either external or internal that causes us to conform in order to keep society organized and productive. Externally, the Leviathan can be a governing body that solves issues. Internally, we regulate ourselves in response to societal norms and past experiences.
There are many ways to “hunt the Leviathan”, both in a f2f (face to face) setting and in CMC (computer mediated communication). As the internet has evolved, many online standards have become the norm. Specifically, posting in this blog, Comm 245 Yellow, has a very defined set of standards. Posts must have a specific number of words, use complete detailed sentences, and have titles that help to identify our topics. Some variations have evolved in the posts, as people use hyperlinks, pictures, and excerpts of conversations. Some bloggers choose to add personal touches to their titles, while others maintain the “Assignment #: Option #” format.
Bloggers found out about these norms from two different sources: and external authority figure and the internal community evolution of posts. The external authority figure, Professor Jeff Hancock, outlined the basic standards (post length, formality, titles) for the blog with a “sign on the door” approach. According to The Psychology of the Internet by Wallace, a sign on the door is a tactic used by Internet niches to explicitly explain what is expected of users since there are no outside cues to help out novices. In this case, the “sign on the door” is the instructions we were given on the course website. The slight variations in post format and titles have evolved from the past posts of students throughout the semester. What I consider acceptable to put in my blog is based on what I have seen in my peers’ blogs. I conform to the norms that we as a community have created together because I want the blog to flourish, as predicted by MacKinnon in The Psychology of the Internet.
The Leviathan enforces this blog in many ways. Grades received on posts help reinforce or change the tactics we use when creating the posts. In this example, the Leviathan is the group of teaching assistants that grade the posts. Also, we comment on each others’ blogs to point out the good aspects of each post and what could use more work. Based on the comments of our peers, future posts are altered to conform more to what is expected by the Yellow blogging community.
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http://comm245yellow.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-6-option-1_8127.html
http://comm245yellow.blogspot.com/2007/10/61-leviathan-sayeth-dont-touch-your-own.html
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3 comments:
I’ve found conformity on this blog interesting since the first day as well! Even before Prof. Hancock and the TAs made the requirements for the title clear, the overwhelming majority of people followed the herd and made their posts titled with some bland variation of “assignment one.” In the absence of external authority, a Leviathan still coalesced around the choices made by those first posters, just as you described. The desire not to stand out can also be observed in any large lecture hall; students will sit in the middle, sink into their chairs, avert their eyes from the gaze of the instructor, and employ various other strategies that I’m sure we all know very well! Grades definitely compose a powerful Leviathan, but the strongest Leviathan is the opinion of our peers. Great post, thanks.
I thought it was very clever how you chose to discuss our class blog. Many people have brought up aspects of the internet that I am either unfamiliar with or don’t have any interest in learning more about. The class blog is a very good resource to use while trying to understand new concepts, and at least for me is more feasible than other examples used in class. You were very concise and clear in your explanation of the internal and external components of the Leviathan. Introducing the “Sign on the door” approach shows that you took the assignment an extra step further to fully explain your example.
The last paragraph in your post holds a lot of truth. For the first few posts and especially for the first few comments I did look at what others wrote. Since what I was writing would be public and not anonymous I wanted to make sure that I was doing the assignment correctly and also fitting in with the group norms.
In coming up with ideas for a “leviathan” that occurs inside the internet, it never occurred to me to use the same blog we have all been posting in since day one – so nice idea. I personally agree with all of the statements you made. I definitely have created many of my posts based on the methods others have used, although I still continue to use the basic titling method of “assignment x option y”. I just don’t feel like coming up with anything more innovative when that works. I think the largest influence comes from two sources you mentioned – grades and overall instructions from the professor. Perhaps the larger of the two is the overall grade you have been receiving on your blogs.
One interesting idea ive noticed since the blogs have started is that there is almost a “saturation point” to where the leviathan affects the blog posts. The posts have become more detailed, longer, included more creative titles, but a certain amount of variation will inherently exist no matter how much outside force is exerted. So basically, the blogs will never all be totally written the same way, some people will still break the rules.
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