Full disclosure: I started this blog so I would have a “writer’s platform” I could show agents and potential publishers. But it doesn’t come without a cost, and that is one’s privacy.
The idea of public and private has shifted. While some people still keep private diaries/journals, myself included, others are blogging their hearts out for all the world to see. Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, chat rooms, etc., have conditioned a new generation to spill it all on the web, to not hold back. Some even set up webcams in their houses so strangers can follow their daily routine.
Has the isolation we experience in our neighborhoods caused this overreaction on the world-wide web? When I was a child, I knew everyone on our block. I walked to school, which allowed me to see my neighbors, both coming and going. People sat on porches in the summer time and shared produce from abundant gardens. We formed neighborhoods, not these individual units that make up most communities today where few people know their neighbors or interact with them. Even the words neighbor and neighborhood sound quaint now.
What is the effect on our consciousness of such willingness to turn ourselves inside out for anyone to see? We won’t know the answer to this question immediately, but we can speculate. Of course, writers learn early that they can’t hold back. They must be willing to expose parts of their private selves, whether in poetry, fiction, or non-fiction. Even the most objective academic or journalistic writing can’t conceal entirely the person behind the prose.
Of course, when we blog, we’re creating a blogging persona, the image we’re trying to create for our readers (we hope we have readers!). In my case, I’m keeping a blog as a way to present my writing self, my site having most of the information that readers might need to learn more about my published poetry and prose. But you’ll notice that I don’t include much about my personal life, my day to day activities and thoughts. Those I save for my personal journals, things that I only share with my husband and other close friends.
Yet by not sharing much about my private life (and you’ll notice that I use the word private here: even on Facebook, where many people share a good deal about what’s happening with them, I’m pretty closed), I’m making a definite demarcation between private and pubic. Even when I’m teaching, or perhaps I should say “also, when I’m teaching,” while I’m open to discussing my writing life, I’m less forthcoming about what goes on behind the scenes, an important boundary, I think, for teachers to make.
But I would like to hear from other bloggers (or non bloggers) who do share deeply from their behind the scenes selves. What is the effect of blogging on our consciousness, on our relationships with ourselves and others? What does it mean not to have a private self any longer? Are there drawbacks to this kind of exposure?
Thanks for sharing!
One thought on “Does blogging overexpose the blogger?”
I blog to share – writing stuff, some observations about life.
If I figure out a craft way to do a writing task that I haven’t seen before, I’ll write a quick post.
If something major involving me happens, I’ll post (not family, just my own).
If I would send it to a magazine – I post it. My time is worth more than the stipend, if any, and I avoid the submission process.
Blogging turned out to be fun, controllable, and to put me in the middle of interesting conversations if I hit a good topic.
Sales, not so much, though there’s been a few.
But it’s a place to point prospective readers to that doesn’t gasp like a beached shark when asked, ‘What is your book about?’
No obligation, no schedule, and the posts go out attached to the email so people don’t have to click back unless they want to. Good writing and non-writing friend have joined me in commenting on some of the topics. Occasionally someone listens to me.
And I have a separate blog for the books, with such things as a prequel short story and a book club guide.