About Blogging.
Until a few months ago, I was totally against it. For years I’d been very cautious about what I put online, what part of me I was okay with sharing, what part of me was worthy, even, for that public domain. I haven’t always been so protective of the image I present, and the few times I let my guard down are usually the times I regret. As it is in rest of my life.
It’s hard to live your life with people watching, and even if you’re not a celebrity, there’s always someone watching. I like sharing myself and my life; connecting to other people is one of the unique aspects of our humanity. But there are key differences in posting things online, differences many people, myself included, forget. You don’t get the whole story online. Like a text message, you get a few lines, kept short to cater to our ever-shortening attention spans; you might get a photo, one little snapshot that might be worth a thousand words but might be a thousand words that don’t say anything. Blogs, text messages, technology in general - they make it easier for us to reach more people anytime, but they limit what we can say.
Because of my job and because of the job(s) I’d like to someday have, it’s essential that I have a web presence, but it’s difficult to balance the person I am, or am becoming, with the person others should see. The web has given me so many opportunities (aka my current job) and could help me find a key contact or get my writing where the right person will see it. It’s a useful tool, but the catch is that I must constantly censor myself, compartmentalize, mold my image into the proper packaging. The only way I can mesh being real and being fictional is to be a little of both at different times. Sometimes I’ll write, or post, or even say things that are completely made-up, so when I have the impulse to post something completely honest and raw, no one else will know just how vulnerable I’ve made myself.
When that’s the mask you hide behind, that some parts are real and some are fake and it’s up to everyone to guess which are which, you open yourself up for interpretation or, more accurately, misinterpretation. When you play games and camouflage your opinions and ideas, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to figure out what you really think or where you really stand. And it’s all in good fun, until someone takes it too seriously.
