What are we doing here?
The New York Times today featured an article
in their Technology section on bloggers who have hurt their personal lives and
friendships by talking about them on their blog. Fiona
has also posted
today on this subject. When I contemplated starting this blog I gave a lot of
thought to the impact that it would have on my friends and family. And the fact
is, those relationships were more important to me than those people (my beloved
readers) who I had not yet met or built a friendship with. So, from the outset,
I told everyone in my life about my blog and gave them the address. Knowing that
they were cheering me on was wonderful, and also put everything that I wrote in
perspective. Even though the internet feels anonymous and fleeting, it isn’t.
And I try to remember that fact.
My mother, who is from the paper and pen generation, always told me, “Don’t
put something on paper that you don’t want the whole world to know.”
I have to admit that I haven’t always remembered this advice--I can think
of several very embarrassing incidents with notes in class and at an older age
with love letters that became public–but I have never regretted the times
that I have remembered her sage advice! So if at times I speak in generalities
about work, my friends, my family or my feelings, it is just to protect what
is important to me, and I hope you understand. And since I am single, I don’t
want to chase everyone away. Truth be told, I am not sure how I would feel about
dating someone who was blogging about it...I am not perfect, but I don’t
want the whole world to know! So I refuse to put someone else through that ordeal.
The other issue Fiona brings up is friends who misunderstand her blog and her
motivations for writing. I have found this attitude quite a bit in my community,
which even though it is very science/tech oriented, isn’t NYC or California!
Most of my friends think it is really crazy that I dedicate a couple hours every
day to write and post for you. And I admit, it is sometimes hard to explain.
For me however, I think it is the feeling of being a part of something bigger
and important in a society-changing way, as well as the urge that all writers
feel to put something on paper (whether they are professional or amateur scribblers
like me), and of course there is the ‘rush’ of working with the
internet. How to explain that feeling? You either feel it or you don’t.
Bloggers and their readers form a community that is every bit as viable as
the one that is formed from the corporate work scene, the bar scene, the university,
the neighborhood of old, or any of the other groups that we belong to. It is
at times more challenging because we don’t usually meet face-to-face,
we can’t read body language and we can’t make judgements of character
based on the other person’s appearance, age, clothes or possessions; but
those of us involved in this new social experiment accept these restrictions
as part of the beauty of the form. I look forward to seeing how the democracy
of the internet evolves.
In some inexplicable way I feel close to you, my readers, and my blogging friends.
I think the next few years are going to be very interesting, and I look forward
to sharing them with you!
9:25:33 PM 
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