“With great power comes great responsibility”
This is pretty freakish.
Within a morning, I received 3 ping backs for my article on My 2¢ Worth of Thought Regarding Dr. Cai Mingjie. Initially from Mong Palatino from Global Voices, then Elites TV and Global Voices in Italiano , which had in turn syndicated what was written by Mong Palatino. My words were being quoted as part of their reportage on Dr. Cai.
Heyzanie blogs in Italiano. Colto, per favore?
Suddenly, the story about a Stanford PhD scientist who now drives a taxi exploded from the epicentre of Singapore to the rest of the world. From South East Asia to United States to Europe. ALL are talking and reading about The Singapore Taxi Driver and his unfortunate situation.
The otherwise unknown Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) of ASTAR, Singapore (yes, unknown even to Singaporean), is probably enjoying the highest hit rate on Google search now.
When I first started blogging proper back in mid June, i.e. less than 3 months from today, I never have thought that my gibberish would matter enough to be quoted by any platforms. I was just hoping I won’t be blogging to myself.
But apparently, like Dale Carnegie would tell you, you could influence others even when you don’t have authority. What we say do matter. And eerie part is: in this new age of media where every netizen is a satellite publishing house, we don’t even know how far we have reached and who have we influenced.
In my incident of being quoted, I wasn’t being consulted whether I would like that to happen. Unlike a street interview where an interviewee could choose to reject, a blogger can’t. For he/she has already chosen to publish his/her words to the world on her blog (unless the blog is kept absolutely private).
That’s why I have mixed feelings when I saw the ping backs. Delighted on one hand that my voice has been heard, uncomfortable on the other hand for realizing that I need to watch my words. And worried about Dr. Cai for the implication of his new limelight at the same time.
[Nah.....actually, the biggest thing that hit me when I read my quoted phrase at Global Voice was: Darn! I made a grammer mistake! I didn't to check my work properly before publishing again! I've since correct the article on my site. ]
Jokes aside. I guess this is where an individual sense of social responsibility comes into play. We can choose to say the darndest thing to inculcate a huge mob of cult followers, or we can choose to follow what other popular bloggers write and be part of the blogosphere backdrop. At the end of the day, until this new webby universe has its proper regulation, it is our individual moral values that decide the yardsticks.
Like Mary Jane Watsons told Peter Parker back in 2002, “With great power comes great responsibility”.
Yes, even to the extend of ensuring your spelling and grammar make sense.
just drop by.. i click ur nang ^_^
Hey afendie, thanks for coming by! That’s sweet of u