Hmmm…
Can you get fired from your job because of your blog? Troutgirl and Dooce were.
Can you shame a major television network and their chief correspondent because of your blog? Yes, yes you can.
I have learned that the strength of a blog is also it’s weakness. On this page in the vast worldwide web I am allowed to speak freely. No editor to chop my chosen words or correct my grammar. No advisor to read it before it’s published and tell me to rethink rash statements. No guide to remind me that 12 year old cousin Bobby, an unknown pot-smoking college freshman, my highly respected pastor and my Granny are all reading my words. Nope.
The beauty is that in Blogland, I go it alone. The problem is, similarly, in Blogland I go it alone.
20 Comments
dena Sep 20, 2004 8:46 PM
i am currently experiencing a blog moral dilemma… ever since i got to new york i have been struggling with whether to share my blog with my new classmates, and have hesitated because i am afraid i will guard my words too much knowing that “strangers” are reading. it also gives these people a glimpse into my life that they may not have seen in person yet, and that can be scary.
andrew Sep 21, 2004 11:54 AM
i agree, becca.
the thing that distresses me, however, is the propensity for anonymous commenting on blogs, boards, or any type of web-based forum from persons not wishing to divulge their identity. the cause of anonymity in this case typically comes down to being a coward or being frightened of the repercussions of their words, plain and simple, since they don’t feel that they ought to be accountable for their words, whether they are valuable or errant.
i have seen on your blog that some people address themselves to the other readers as ‘anonymous’ or by other psuedonyms, since they don’t wish their name to become as sullied as their words.
it’s my opinion that the blogger should delete any anonymous posts as wasteful use of server space. if you are an anonymous poster, grow up.
my final axiom: if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
my final say: my email is “andrew dot lawton at gmail dot com,” but for some reason it never shows up when you mouse-over my name.
bethany Sep 21, 2004 12:14 PM
I’m very anti-anonymous comments, too. I think if you have something to say, you’d better think about it enough to be prepared to put your name behind it. Otherwise you’d best just keep it to yourself.
Jeremy Sep 21, 2004 1:22 PM
Andrew, your email is not associated with your name because I have chosen to disable that feature in order to protect people from spam-bots—those nasty scripts that scour the web for email addresses. It’s also why I just reformatted the email address that you just listed. Word of warning to all web surfers, don’t post your email address in an unprotected manner or register it with an untrusted site. For registration purposes, you should consider using a secondary email address.
Jeannette Sep 21, 2004 2:16 PM
In defense for the anonymous: Another big concern out there for a lot of people is identity theft. While I know that leaving my name on your blog probably isn’t going to result in anything, somebody a little less computer literate might be skittish about leaving his/her name/contact info. And getting one’s identity stolen is a big pain in the you-know-where.
Another thing. I don’t think the responsibility of a blog is any more or less than “may the words of my mouth and the meditation of heart be pleasing to You, My Rock and My Redeemer” (what Psalm is that?!). Something we are to be mindful all the time. At least when you’re writing a blog entry, you have a chance to re-read your words and/or delete them, as opposed to speaking. You might not know a pot-smoking freshman out there, but then again, you don’t know your grocery bagger either. {I’m speaking in the royal “you” here…I forgot we’re supposed to say “one” instead of “you”.}
Bethany Sep 21, 2004 2:22 PM
I understand that it’s foolish to have your full name hanging out there in cyberspace, or other intimate personal details, and I can sympathise with people who are skittish about that. But attaching a FIRST name, or a nickname that lets the people who know you on the site know who you are? I can’t see the problem with that.
RT Sep 21, 2004 3:36 PM
I agree with you, Jeannette, about how we (who claim to follow Jesus) should be mindful of our words and hearts, no matter the circumstance. No matter who you are, you give an impression of yourself to those who see you, hear you or read your writings. That being said, sharing your written thoughts with friends, family and unknowns is an interesting task. For example, sarcasm doesn’t translate well online and a witty comment may end up hurting someone unnecessarily.
I don’t like anonymity a whole lot either. (I also don’t think it’s necessary to use my real name on every comment as I leave a real email address when I post on someone’s site.) When you post as Anonymous, you assume that someone will be upset with you for the way you think or that your foolish words will label you a Fool. Fools unite! We’re all dumb at times. We all write and say foolish things. Sign me up as Fool #1 who loves to scribble publicly on her own blog.
Renae Sep 21, 2004 4:19 PM
I am pretty nuetral toward anonymity, I guess. More than anything it makes me curious–and I’m decidedly more curious about the *why* than the *who*.
As I’ve been musing about this throughout the day, the thing that doesn’t sit well with me is being too quick to box up reasons for anonymity as falling under self-protection (whether that be cowardice or not wanting to look foolish or whatever). And I’ve been trying to think of other possibilities (in addition to being skittish about the internet, which was proposed)–I’ve only come up with a couple, but I guess my point is that people do things for all kinds of reasons.
Haley Sep 21, 2004 4:28 PM
Good comments, all, and good topic, Rebecca. This is one of the things that makes me somewhat wary of having my own blog. Given my profession (newspaper reporter, albeit at a small paper) I am very careful about how public I make my personal views on things. I think it’s silly to deny that everyone in my profession comes to the table with personal beliefs and opinions on just about everything, but my job as a professional is to set that aside and try to present a fair, accurate rendition of all sides of a story no matter if I agree with those opinions or not. Part of people trusting me to do that is maintaining a demeanor of objectivity when I am presenting myself publicly. So for me to then hop online (in public) and rant at length about how I see an issue I cover would be un-professional and unwise. But I think that’s true to some extent for everyone, so I’m probably not special. That said, I think I have decided to get a blog soon and limit it to a ‘here is an update on my life that no one but my mom would care about’ capacity. Brace yourself for massive boredom and no controversy. :)
bethany Sep 21, 2004 5:13 PM
Renae – What other reasons for anonymity have you come up with? I’m genuinely curious, as the only real reasons I’ve been able to think of are ones of self-preservation – being either embarassed or cowardly. So if I could gain some insight into other reasons, perhaps it would help me be less annoyed with anonymity. :)
Renae Sep 22, 2004 10:48 AM
Heh. Somehow I knew I wasn’t going to get away with that. :) Part of my answer is just going to have to be that I think “that I can think of” are key words–i.e., the fact that I/we can’t think of other reasons that one might post anonymously doesn’t mean other reasons don’t exist (whether those reasons are annoying or not is an entirely different issue; part of my point is simply that it’s not quite adequate to say “the only reason…” and say that’s the end of the discussion).
So, I don’t know, for the sake of discussion, one might want to post anonymously to flirt; to maintain a realistic sense of how well we really know or don’t know each other in blogworld (a whole other topic, that); to promote someone/something without bias; or to help your fellow bloglanders avoid the temptation to gossip (i.e., when the point is important but the identity of those involved is not). Seriously, these are hard to think of, and if you overthink it, everything does go back to self-preservation (which in a sense is inherent to anonymity, that’s the point). Maybe my real point is that even if it all boils down to self-preservation (and I do think it’s more complicated than that), I just don’t think self-preservation is necessarily bad or annoying.
For the record, as sometimes happens, I find myself arguing a point that I’m not all that invested in. :)
Sarah B. Sep 22, 2004 5:45 PM
Interesting entry, Rebecca, as well as thought-provoking comments by everyone. I must say, too, that I share the same “fears” about blogging that Haley mentioned in her entry. As silly as it may sound, I’ve actully had thoughts like, “What is Dave’s parents read these things? What would they think? What would MY parents think?? (And I’ll assure you that if I had a blog, my mother would be reading it!!) What would these acquaintances who barely know me think?” I guess, really, I have fears of having to censor myself too much, for fear of not only what people would think, but also of hurting someone unintentionally or revealing too many personal snippets about my husband or parents or whoever.
Jeannette Sep 22, 2004 6:33 PM
I think Haley’s point is good, too–the projection of your public persona. I know a lot of academic bloggers post under pseudonym fearing googling students and/or administration. Some parade their identity out in the public using what they post on their blog as part of the medium by which they develop ideas. I guess part of this leads to another question–why blog anyway?
I guess I get around the fear of what to post with the mindset that “if I’m worried about posting this, maybe I shouldn’t be posting it all” which leads to the next problem “what should I post?” which forces me to reconsider writing material and become more creative (or less :S !) than I would’ve in the first place.
Jnet Sep 22, 2004 6:36 PM
interesting posts along this line at 11D one of my favorite academic bloggers.
Jnet Sep 22, 2004 6:37 PM
sorry…that didn’t hyperlink. Are your comments HTML enabled?
http://11d.typepad.com/blog
Haley Sep 22, 2004 10:43 PM
Side topic: How much do y’all think the Internet, reality TV and blogging have blurred the line between our public selves and our private selves? I mean, with people running around on national television spilling their guts about romantic relationships and our ability to find just about anyone and learn just about anything about them through the wonders of Google, I think we’re living in a time when the public/private line is a lot thinner than it once was. I don’t know if that’s entirely a good or bad thing, it’s just kind of interesting.
Jeannette Sep 23, 2004 8:53 AM
That’s a good question. But I wonder if, to some extent, it’s not so much a blurring of public and private, rather a loss of private. Because of these hyper-public portrayals of self as private, it feeds the message that x-thing is what a private self looks like. So as our age group struggles to define what its adult self looks like, what is trotted out as “normal” are these public portrayals of private life. Hence, it doesn’t occur to a vast majority of people to cultivate their own private life. (I’m just hypothesizing here.) So we end up with a generation devoid of any private depth, thinking that the facile existence they live is private because it’s what is portrayed on TV, etc, which actually isn’t private. Does that make sense?
RT Sep 23, 2004 9:36 AM
I would say that the internet, as well as television, has great potential to expose one’s private life, making it public for the rest of the world to see. Oftentimes I am inspired by this exposure. When I watch a program like “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” I’m reminded of all the *good* other families have accomplished or of all the heartache others have gone through (makeovers are usually giving to “deserving” families). Sometimes I’m quite literally disgusted and horrified by the exposure of private lives. Nonetheless, THIS is the world we live in!
Professionalism aside, what is the need to hide one’s private life?
Jason Sep 23, 2004 1:36 PM
As someone who spends considerable amounts of time blogging and writing for the Web, I constantly wrestle with how much I write and share with the people who come to my site. Some of them I know and consider good, even great friends, but the vast majority are complete strangers.
There have been many times when I’ve typed up a lengthy blog entry, only to delete it because deep down inside, I know I’m not ready to share that with the world. Or posting it would make me feel hypocritical, or someone else has already made far more intelligent and convinving arguments than I could do and anything I write would merely be stating the obvious. Sometimes I’ve decided to not post something simply because what I’ve written is a knee-jerk reaction at best and I’m just not prepared to be called on it. If you’re going to be posting on sensitive topics such as politics or religion, than you should at least ensure that you’ve got as solid a position as possible, if only out of respect for those that will inevitably differ with you.
Writing music and movie reviews can be even more difficult, partly because I’m writing my subjective assessment of someone’s artistic endeavor (and you want to do so carefully, even if your opinion is negative) and partly because it’s difficult for me to write a review unless the art connects with me on a personal level, if it intertwines itself with my life somehow. And the moment I come at a review from that angle, personal details will be divulged, otherwise anything I write simply won’t make any sense at all.
It’s a very fine line, though I’ve definitely become much more comfortable with divulging parts of myself online. For one thing, I’ve been doing it for 8-9 years now, in one way or another. And the other thing is that I’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that, when I do post something, be it a blog entry or music review, it’s obvious I know what I’m talking about. That I’ve thought about it, even agonized over it, and am clearly available for a dialog should one begin. And I think people, even if they only know me as “Opus”, respect that sort of integrity, such as it is.
Sarah B. Sep 23, 2004 7:59 PM
I really comment on your mentioning of “dooce,” Rebecca, since the subject was brought up about our private lives. I am quite envious of her because she has this uncanny way of revealing to the entire world the depths of her soul. (Although her most recent entry about recovening the “unmentional” procedure was way overboard. Revealing that much is disrespecting the intimate relationship with one’s spouse.) Okay, but that aside, most of her other entries display such depth and courage and an honesty that, I think, is difficult to find these days. She obviously doesn’t seem to care what people think of her, since she has one of the most popular blogs on the net. It’s this term that many Christians like to use when referring to one’s character: transparency. And among Christians and non-Christians alike, it’s pretty rare to stumble across.