Blogging vs Public Diary
Posted on October 10, 2008
I think the difference depends on the purpose of your blog. I started this blog because we were moving to a new state with a 6 week old baby, and I felt guilty about taking my child so far away from her extended family. I wanted to make sure that her grandparents, aunts and uncle could keep up with her day to day, so they could feel like they really knew her, even if they didn’t get to spend much time with her.
Over time, it has developed into a way for me to express myself as well, but the original purpose is always right underneath the surface. What isn’t seen by looking at my posts, is my relatives and some of my friends don’t post comments on my blog, instead they call or email me. They worry I am depressed, or bored. My mom loves to give advice (this is a nod to Dina who commented on my last post.) And my in-laws get a kick out of the pictures.
Now, imagine what would happen if I wrote a post about “finding a hot guy at the Harvest Festival and wanting to jump his bones!” (That’s a slightly modified quote from my review.)
I love to READ the so-called public diary’s of people I don’t know. I have found a lot of blog’s through Ask and You Shall Recieve that I find hilarious and visit every day. However, I don’t think that I could personally air my dirty laundry as openly as they can. I am also not sure of the wisdom of telling the internets all your personal demons, even if it is anonymous. My friend, Matt, explained that nothing is truly anonymous on the internet and if people really want to find you, they can.
So, this may not be the most salacious reading, but it’s what I can feel comfortable with.
I would love to hear other opinions. Should blogging be a forum for people to share information, or should it be more of a public diary, or both? And which do you enjoy reading most?
I tried my hand at the diary-style blogging a couple of times, but I felt extremely uncomfortable telling the world so many intimate details of my life. When I got divorced, I felt even more uncomfortable, so I stopped, and now I’m writing a food blog, which ends up being an interesting (for me, at least) way of blogging about my life without revealing too much. I don’t have anything against the tell-all style; it just isn’t for me.
at blogher a fairly well-loved blogger was leading a panel discussion about following your passion. She said it saddened her when people would answer the question “what do you blog about” with “I’m *JUST* a blogger.” No one is JUST anything. She proposed that people answer with, it’s a personal blog - I write about things that interest me. I thought that was great. Mine started out all about kids. And now? When was the last time I posted about them? Or posted in general, but that’s another topic entirely.
Make no apologies - this is your space. People can leave if they like. Unless you’re trying to support your family on your blog you have no one to answer to except yourself.
It depends on your purpose in writing. If you’re writing to keep friends and family informed and keep a history of Chloe’s life, that’s entirely different than writing to for yourself or to publish or develop a readership or satisfy some exhibitionist fetishes.
I personally think it would be strange to have a blog that chronicles the life of your daughter filled with erotic fantasies, she’ll be looking at it later after all (isn’t that the point?). And I doubt anyone who knows you two would really want a mental image anyway.
What it boils down to is, if you’re writing what you want to write, and you’re happy with the blog, then really, who cares what a review says? If you’re not happy with it, then you need to consider what you want to do about it.