It is so easy when blogging to share. You can write whatever you want and if you turn off your comments, you'll never have to hear anything about it!
But with great power comes great responsibility (this is a line from a movie ... can someone comment and tell me which one? I seriously have no idea...).
What do I mean by that?
Well, when you blog, just how honest are you? Are there certain topics that are off limits? Do you use full names? Or just first? Or letters? Or made up names? Do you post pictures? Or do you consider that too personal?
I've come to realize everyone has their own style. Some people are very open while others are very secretive.
When I first started blogging (you know, a whole FOUR months ago lol) I only really read Beth's
blog. So I kinda used her example. But morphed it a bit.
You see, my actual, real, legit first name is somewhat unique. And I don't want anyone to find me! (Shhh, I'm hiding.) So I had to come up with a name. I could explain where Sara comes from, but that's unlikely to happen in the near future.
Now as for D, his name actually starts with the letter D. Whenever possible, I do use the first letter of someone's name. But, sometimes it's too confusing. So sometimes I pick another letter. Don't hate me.
But what about topics? This is especially timely because JUST LAST NIGHT, I found myself in a conversation about sex toys that I did not start. (Here's lookin' at you,
Kim and you,
Rusti.) Now the conversation itself didn't upset/worry/bother me. (And since I know you are just DYING to know ... no, D and I do not and have not ever owned nor used the sex toy they were discussing!)
But, D had a stricken look on his face. He was suddenly fearful that "once you put something on the internet, that's it." It's there and there is NO going back!
This doesn't worry me quite as much.
Plus, I'm 99% anonymous. A few people know who I really am and only a FEW (as in 3) that I know in real life know that I blog. And one is my husband. I'm not too worried.
But even though I am anonymous, I'm not naive. I fully imagine one day I will open up my blog and tell my family about it. And when that day comes, I don't want to risk them going back through my entries and discovering something. (Basically, if my mom and MIL were to read this post tomorrow, would it be ok? If the answer is yes, the post can go up!)
So family (with the exception of memories and good/funny stories) is off the table.
I also don't discuss coworkers (good technique, make sure one of the THREE people you know in real life is a coworker! It helps keep you honest!), friends, or my husband. Again, except for memories/funny stories. If I mention a person who was in my life previously, I have to be certain of two things: (a) they will
never ever ever read my blog and/or (b) even if they did, I would
not care if they did realize I was talking about them. If you can pass BOTH of these two tests, the story goes in.
I also keep a lot of my private life, private. At first I didn't even say what state I lived in. That changed. But I haven't talked about my work except in mostly abstract terms. And that's intentional.
This invisible line between what is allowed and what isn't will only get worse once I get pregnant and/or have a kid.
What are your rules regarding privacy on your blog??
This was written in response to the prompt:What are your thoughts on blogging and privacy...where do you draw the line?