One of my great struggles with the blogging world is how personal is too personal? I never know exactly how much I want to say on something like this. I don't know how much of myself that I really want people to see.
I always say that I am the most closed open book that anyone could ever read. I'll tell the truth about myself if you ask me directly. Ask me if I've ever done drugs and I will say yes. Ask me what drugs I've tried and I will give you the list, but I don't normally volunteer the information.
This can be an issue sometimes, but in a two way conversation - if you're going to ask me something in all seriousness then expect an answer you may not like. Unfortunately, a blog is a one way conversation. No one asking me questions. I just get to random on like the lunatic on the corner.
So the question still remains; how much is too much? Before I asked myself this question I had written several paragraphs on the issue of sleep for me. How sleep is something that is difficult for me and I explained why.
Then I thought about how some people might interpret what I was saying. I wasn't so sure that I wanted the few people who know me to know or guess at such things. It's not so much that I mind them knowing such things about me. It's more of a matter of the fact that they hadn't asked to know these things.
And I guess that is what it really comes down to; you aren't asking to read these things about me, about my life. Yeah, you could close the browser window or click over to another blog, but there is that one factor that might keep you reading.
There is something so fascinating about being on the verge of a train wreck. Waiting for the moment when everything goes crashing down into the bottomless gorge. Being able to say I was there to see that happen.
I struggle with that myself sometimes as well. My very first blog I made the mistake of putting everything out there, not caring really who I talked about or what I said. My thinking was, in my teen angst, that if I put everything out there more people would understand me. Never mind that every other teen was blogging, and that it left everybody to peer into my life and misinterpret everything.
ReplyDeleteI don't use that blog anymore, and have started a number of other blogs since. I keep a personal blog where I update about the more personal aspects of my life (ie. rants, etc). I even lock a number of my entries now if they are particularly ranty. Though, it's difficult to totally separate what you blog about and your life, since it is your life that gives inspiration for what you blog about.
I guess all you can do is ask your question after every blog entry: is this too personal? I try to give few details, or give details that don't actually give a proper clue into my life. But I probably still am too personal sometimes.
I guess that is what I will have to do. I don't want to have to lock my thoughts away to the extent that it seems as though I am holding far too much back. I do want "me" to come through, but it is going to be something I'll have to keep in mind.
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