Thursday, July 26, 2007

My Perceived Anonymity

This blog is dangerous. If you ask my mom, really dangerous. We were talking about one of my more personal entries and she asked, "What if decision makers read this blog?" Who are these decision makers, mom? If you are out there please respond so I know to censor myself. What bad things could happen? It seems a bit silly ... at first.

Talking to my good friend Simon, he mentioned that it was what he most admired about my blog, my openness and honesty. I was really opening others up to my innermost feelings, questions, and challenges. One person even remarked that they learned more about me from my blog posts than from talking to me directly. And I think that is quite accurate. Would I really publicly talk about fireflies and why they represent my ability to appreciate the meaningful things around me? Would I really open up that perhaps we are not designed to be happy but to be continuously driven by an unrelenting desire to strive for more? Maybe.

This blog for me is my diary in many ways. I have this perceived anonymity as I type these words. They are just words on a computer. They exist on a white background, nothing else. I am not going to document every twist and turn in life, I wouldn’t find that interesting, and I am also unable to fully suspend my disbelief. But my innermost thoughts and feelings are in here, and thus they are subject to the rollercoaster of my life. And it isn't all pretty.

And so mom was right. This blog can be dangerous, if I write in the wrong state of mind or am not thoughtful about what I say or accurately represent myself. Not everything you read is a perfect reflection of me. These are all snapshots in time and state.

Right now, I feel cautious as I write on…

1 comment:

matt said...

the following... let's call it a "mantra", has inspired me to overcome my fears of blogging (and indeed publishing anything online, myspace/facebook, del.icio.us, flickr, etc. etc.):

http://xkcd.com/137/