My blog topics mostly avoid my most personal thoughts and experiences, because such things cannot be shared with readers who know me. I've taken a risk now and then with posts that scratch the surface, but have been careful to avoid the deepest personal topics.
The paradox of blogging is in the conflict between publishing your thoughts, experiences, and opinions for anyone to read and the risk of offending or destroying your image with those who know you and may read the blog.
Sometimes it is tempting to set up an anonymous blog which you tell nobody about, where you can post your deepest and most personal stuff without fear of discovery. I often wonder how many others do just that, but also whether anyone even reads such blogs. Given the fact that I'm not terribly consistent with this blog, I'm not sure I could take the time to post in a second one. And unless the other blog draws an audience of strangers, it would just be sitting out there with no readership besides myself. But then, if it attracted a large audience, that would increase the risk that someone I know would find it and easily figure out the author's identity.
That leads to the question, "Why do I blog"?
For me, it's a personal journal outlet that fills some need nothing else can satisfy. It reminds me of "John Boy" in the old Walton's television show, who used a tablet to chronicle his daily experiences. It's not terribly important to me whether anyone reads the blog, because ultimately it is not written for others, but just for my own personal blog therapy.
On the other hand, if I'm expressing a strongly-held opinion or belief, I do hope others see it and at least think about what I have to say. One of my hopes for my blog is that someday I get a comment from someone who disagrees with what I've written, but makes a well-reasoned case for why they disagree. Engaging each other constructively, like my recent back-and-forth with the newspaper reporter, is the best way for people to begin to understand each other.
Anyway, I'll probably just continue to post as I have been; whatever is bugging me or rolling around my brain looking for an outlet will find itself in this little cyberspace journal.
3 comments:
i had the same dilemma, and still do occassionally, but i discovered sometime last fall that there is no image worth protecting that needs protecting. now, the only censorship i do is what secrets others would not want told. it's entirely satisfying to bare your soul to the world, because, having been judged and found blameless by whoever cares to read, you can go about your life knowing that no one can hurt you. everything is there, on the table, for anyone to see. how can you blackmail someone with no secrets?
I actually believe you do have secrets. There are things about you that you most likely don't want me to know, and things you don't want your friends to know. And neither your friends nor I want to know, most likely.
There are the secrets that everyone suspects about you but don't know for sure. And there are secrets that nobody knows or suspects, which will remain buried in the darkest recesses of your memory and never shared - not even with the closest friend.
Although I don't want to cause you to edit your blog just because I might be reading it, at the same time I realize there are things you won't post there because you just don't want those you know read it to be hurt or disappointed.
By the way, when did we last spend any time together? I'm having trouble remembering.
I've been having that same internal conflict. I think it's interesting how blogs start as a place to express yourself freely and then you slowly begin to edit and censor yourself because of your readers. I actually have two. And while I don't frequently write in the second, it's there for the times when I need to express something that could possibly hurt someone that I care about....
Sometimes it's hard to balance what goes into each blog and the knowledge that the very people I created the second not to hurt could find it anyway, but in all honesty if they decided to go looking for it then they deserve to be hurt because I've specifically asked them not to read it and explained the reasons why.....
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