People cruising cyberspace now have a new outlet to express themselves.
Ether, a Web site made available to the public in August, is part blog and part confessional, allowing users to share any of their stories, thoughts and feelings to the digital world. Users post thoughts on the Web site, ranging anywhere from lighthearted, humorous stories to deep and philosophical musings.
"An unappreciated benefit of living in an igloo," one user wrote, "is that if you ever get locked out, you can always pee yourself a new doorway."
All contributions are posted in total anonymity, without even the typical Internet pseudonym attached.
Graham Watson is a senior computer science major with a penchant for the philosophical. He began the project in June, bored of the hierarchical setup of the typical blog, which he said can create unintentional rankings among posts. He wanted to create a blog site that more closely matches the workings of the mind.
"Ether was never a name I thought I would stick with," Watson said. "Physicists back in the day used the term to mean substances suspending matter."
Before Albert Einstein's theories, people believed ether was an invisible medium through which intangible matter travels. Watson designed the Web site's navigational system with this in mind. Watson designed the Web site's navigational system with this in mind. Users are presented with a set of "thoughtwords," that they can navigate to find the deep or frivolous thoughts of the site's 19 current posters.
Watson picked a dozen people during the summer to test the site. He designed Ether to keep track of the total number of registered users. So far, the site has slowly grown to 19 users - referred to as "thinkers" on the main page.
Steve Geraci, one of the original testers of Ether, said the design of the site was intuitive and unique.
"It lends itself to the novelty of the experience," Geraci, a senior political science major, said.
VoyeurismThe issue of privacy among college students has been brought to the forefront with the massive backlash against Facebook, which recently added news feeds, keeping users updated on their friends' actions within the site. Many Facebook users were concerned their privacy would be breached by focusing all of their personal information on one page.
Watson said he wasn't concerned with this issue when applied to Ether.
"Personally, I'm surprised it's even an issue," Watson said of the Facebook controversy. "Our generation is going through a maturation process. We're learning how to use these global technological toys without hurting ourselves and each other."
Watson doesn't see this problem in Ether because posting thoughts is consensual and anonymous. The anonymous nature of sites such as Ether allows for openness and honesty when posters write.
"People want to connect to people's intimate, honest thoughts," he said.
Geraci sees Ether as a conglomeration of journaling Web sites such as Xanga and Postsecret, a Blogger hosted site in which users send in postcards of anonymous confessions.
"Voyeuristic and anonymity is a contradiction in terms," Geraci said. "That's part of the allure - humans are voyeuristic."
Check out Ether.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
