Date a Blogger, Read All About It
Did anybody see this piece in today's NYT? About indiscreet bloggers...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/fashion/18BLOG.html
This captured my attention because I've gone personal with my blog sometimes and have offended at least one friend with a comment I made. It was even a veiled comment, not specific but the person picked it out and got sore about it. Funny how that one worked... I'd suffered several (possibly veiled, possibly just unconscious) insults from her at a party. My feelings had been hurt and so I took a swipe in the blog -- I didn't try to come back at her in person. I just wanted to relieve my annoyance a little bit by complaining into cyberspace. Nevertheless, and even though I named no names, my swipe was portrayed as a great crime. Heavy sigh.
I regularly suffer the discouragement of friends who think my blogging is either a waste of time or an exercise in egotism. Of course all bloggers are assumed to be frustrated wannabe writers. This also makes me mad. Don't all writers start out as wannabes? Don't we all have potential? I don't see how there could possibly be only a finite number of competent writers in this world, but professional writers all try to act like that's the way it is. Here's how I think it really is: there are an awful lot of competent writers in the world, including the professional ones. One doesn't necessarily have to get paid for it to be a good writer. The pros are threatened by blogging because this has become so plain to see.
And people naturally want to communicate. What is so wrong with that? Why does it have to be portrayed as "desperate for attention"? I'm tired of being bashed because I'm being natural. But there were some good points being made in this NYT article. I do think that we have to respect other people's privacy. I wouldn't use someone's real name in my blog unless they gave me their permission. I don't really think it's cool to describe private, personal relationships, but it is so TEMPTING to do so. Like for example, I'd like to tell you all about the love affair I'm having right now, but I just know that somehow that would go all wrong... Either my lover will see it and be angry with me, or someone else I know will see it and be jealous or derisive or gossipful.
Of course, if I'd kept the blog truly anonymous instead of telling all of my friends about it, I'd be able to write anything I wanted. But I did want my friends to read it. It isn't easy getting them to read it. Sometimes it seems like they never read it unless I have written something that is likely to offend them. They always find THAT stuff! I'm probably even in trouble for writing about my dead friend, Shorty. The bastard will surely poltergeist me.
11:43:59 AM 
|
