Public personae
8 o'clock, March 4, 2003
Rob has a nice post about the propriety of blogging about one’s meat-space friends and family, not to mention the perennial problem of trying not to blog about one’s day job.
In some ways, that is a frustrating limit on my ability to write; not surprisingly, frustration with ongoing work makes up a sizeable portion of what I would want to talk about during the day, while i'm actively working. But in another way, it seems to me that this limitation is a feature; it ensures that this log will not be a series of frustrated, poorly-written rants about whatever mishap happened at work today, or tomorrow, or any other day; it forces the content placed here to be directed at other things. By blocking obsessive discussion of my day job, the fear of inadvertant disclosure of corporate secrets forces me to discuss the other, more intellectually interesting, parts of my life.
Something I should bear in mind, particularly as the news that I have a blog is starting to get around at work. (Dale, if you’re reading this, play nice, y’hear?)
I've been trying to find the balance between discussion and privacy, myself. I want to talk about my husband and the things he's been going through -- partially because he's never really had an advocate before -- but I need to be careful, because he may not want to talk about it.
I haven't told his family about the journal, but I still feel uncomfortable talking about them because I really do care for them, screwed up and mental as they may be, but I want to talk about them, because they contribute to who Shawn is....
Anyway, I completely empathize. I, too, could just talk about ideas, but people are my life. I care about them, and I want to tell others about how my life is affected by them.
So the balancing act continues.
PS thanks for letting us use your comments space!