blog boundaries
I was musing last night about the different boundaries people set themselves on their blogs, in the nz political blogosphere.
Some people never mention personal stuff but stick strictly to the political, occasionally explaining their absences but that's about it. Uber left blogger No Right Turn in particular comes to mind.
At the other end of the spectrum some give rather too much personal information, given that they are totally open about their identity. It's totally their choice, but sometimes I worry that their posts will come back to bite them in the arse. I do tend to worry too much, of course.
My boundary is that I'll refer to stuff in my life, historical or current, but I'm not really into a high level of revelation about my relationships with partner, friends, family or workmates. I tend to prefer to be cryptic if I really need to get something out (not entirely sure whether I am cryptic enough, but I try).
I tend to feel that the personal stuff is not really that interesting to others, except in a prurient sense. Posting about it is more for my benefit, to put it out there on the page and thus at arm's length. Which is why being cryptic does the business for me.
This boundary is likely to be tested in the next few months, but I am in good heart that I can safely maintain it and also retain all my limbs intact.
17 comments:
I hear what you are saying. I didn't mind sharing parts of my personal life prior to getting married, but now that my life consists of more than just 1 person (myself) I now take a different perspective on sharing personal information on a blog. Given that I do have an interest in political matters (which increases personal life exposure) plus a surname with some prominence (due to my father's business success) I feel that I have to be even more careful.
Hence the reason why I was keen to keep my wedding information out of the public eye - it was a day for friends, family and guests to share with, no one else.
I understand completely about sometimes having to post something for your own benefit. I also have a livejournal which is mostly friends only, so I can control who sees what but still keep in some contact with my friends overseas (but I have been neglecting livejournal badly of late)
In regards to your cryptology, I admit I was a little worried after reading your post about 'becoming betrayer' - I suspected I had some idea what it was about, but wasn't sure, so I imagined worse things than the situation probably warranted (I hope). It was like 'oh no, what are those mean b*****s doing to span!' :(
Hi Span, the anon comment is from me. Don't know why it listed it as anon, as I was logged in at the time.
The same could be said about the 90s fad of having your very own "homepage" on the web. What on earth do you actually put on it that is not personal. The noughties' blog fad is similar, and blogs only really get interesting when you get glimpses of the author's life and private life, so you can actually put the blog entries in context. A lot of NZ political blogging is just me-too-ing overseas comment/news, and as such a complete bore. So much more fun to read when the author lets it all hang out.
so some people like personal stuff and find it interesting, whilst others think it is intrinsically boring and should be left out entirely.
i guess part of this goes to why a blog like DPF's is so successful - he mixes them both - the personal is the political and vice versa.
but then again bizgirl is entirely personal, and hugely popular as well as "critically acclaimed" ;-)
perhaps good writing is what draws people back again, to what they are naturally interested in, be that politics or permitted peeking at the everyday lives of others?
I don't blog about personal stuff because I don't think my life is of any interest whatsoever to other people. Hell, half the time its barely of interest to me!
now that sounded like an Apathy Jack comment there, IS - are you sure you aren't somehow secretly related? And look how interesting his personal life actually is! You never know how interested we are until you start posting about it...
Damn! There I go undermining the whole point of my original post by being a nosey parker ;-)
It's an interesting aspect of blogging. I have never met Gordon King of NZ Pundit but love the posts about his daughter and sometimes ex-wives. Partly I suppose because I think it allows me to work out more about the person behind the opinions.
I post a fair amount of personal stuff, sometimes in a political context, but sometimes not. Partly I do it because I do like people to understand it is *my* blog not just a politics blog. Also I do know that many of my friends do read it as a way to keep in touch with what I am up to. Even my mother has commented she finds out more about what I do from my blog than from me sometimes :-)
But there is a lot I do not post. Serious relationship stuff I keep away from. If I mentions the fairer sex on my blog, they are almost without exception platonic friends. I keep my parents out of it generally too.
In the end it is what each person is comfortable with.
I hear you Span..
I start worrying now whether or not I am being too political and whether it's gonna bite me in the bum, and also whether or not I actually want to see myself in hit results on Google.
I think I'll change my name.
Mellie
Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said the one thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about?
Hence, nothing wrong with being frank about one's personal life as long as it is your personal life and not someone elses.
I have written more on the subject at http://thewhig.blogspot.com/2005/01/secret-life-of-me.html
oooh didn't notice your later posting - oops!
interesting that your Ma reads DPF - I made a conscious decision not to tell my folks about my blog - it came up the other day because Dad subscribes to netguide and I wanted to see that article on blogs to see who was listed. i was thinking about my post on the politics of the C word when i failed to mention i had one too.
mentioning some personal stuff on your blog, but not all, does bring up another point though - for example i had kind of assumed, not knowing DPF at all, that one of the women he was blogging about was in fact his partner. now obviously that is quite wrong, from what he's commented above. i guess it's a side-effect of self-editing - i know what i've left out but you don't. thus the reader is going to make mistakes.
that's not a plea for full disclosure (i'm certainly not going to be going down that path myself) just an observation.
It worked! But woe is me: the Google cache
Blogging is also a good way to parade your fantasy life in public. For example the other day Farrar claimed he'd had five one night stands in 2004. Well, if you've seen a photo of the man you'd realise the utter unlikeliness of that claim :)
Whoops, signed Gordon King!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
now now children, play nice
good point about the fantasy life though - not only do readers not know what you have left out, they also don't have any idea whether you are telling the truth, especially about something as uncheckable as who you've slept with.
maybe it's part of that often unmerited veracity we ascribe to the typed word, whereas the same statement made orally might encounter complete disbelief?
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