So the idea of putting your life on the internet came up at work today. It was really more about people putting inappropriate things on-line. But the question was asked and I couldn’t come up with a good answer. I had some answers but I didn’t think I could make someone understand if they didn’t get it just a little bit.
I remembered back into the days when Heather was trying to get me to understand blogging and I just didn’t get it. Partially because I always put my life out there so it wasn’t something new, but the (semi)regular posting and using special software to do it I just didn’t understand. Let alone when she tried to explain trackbacks and pings. And if a geek like me didn’t get it, how can I get other people to?
Now here I am 1800+ posts later (and a million spam comments) and I still don’t have a good answer.It’s a lot of little things, it’s fun, it’s great to get feedback from others, sometimes it’s therapy to vent (and it’s free!) and sometimes it’s the thinking it out & making it coherent for others makes you think about it & understand it more.. It depends on the topic. I certainly get different things out of it when I type about a movie review than when I discuss a funeral I just went to. I generally try to avoid certain things: (complaining about) work, dating people (but I will complain about not dating), anything that would turn off a current or future employer, sex and a few other topics.
Back to the original question, why? I guess it’s what some people do these days. Some people keep quiet, some people talk, some hate using the phone, some people you can’t get off the phone, some people blog publicly, and some blog in secret.
I did mention that I blog all my vacations, which they understood as sharing. But they just see it as sharing with friends and not with the whole world. But it’s out there for the whole world too. “If you build it” and all that…
Yeah, I guess that’s what I should have said as an answer, that whole previous paragraph (not just the first sentence of it).
You’re right – the great thing about blogging is that everyone does it for different reasons, and that is what makes it so much fun. I love learning about other people!