Ooh Look! A Guest Poster Has Come to Play.

Privacy, Blogging and Self-Censorship – How Should We Blog?

Ooh, I’m so excited!  The lovely Very Bored in Catalunya has agreed to let me hijack her blog for the day guest post here while she is away in good ol’ Blighty.  Poor girl, maybe someone should have warned her…too late now, hee hee!  Oh, ok – I promise to take very good care of your blog while I’m here :D 

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is bubbleboo and I blog over at The Thought Bubble.  Which you would love.  You should check it out.  Really.  I’m a single stay-at-home-mum to the Chipmunk, who is seven.  He has various health needs and difficulties, the most prominent of which is his autism.  He’s also the best little boy in the world.  Ever.

 

Anyway, so I offered to write this here guest post without so much as a consideration as to what to actually write about.  I do things like that.  A lot.  I open my mouth about an hour before my brain even contemplates getting into gear.  And then, when my brain begins to comprehend what I’ve done, the ‘Oh crap, I’m such an idiot’-style terror kicks in.  Which it just did!

So, I came to have a little nose around VBiC’s blog, to see if I could get some inspiration – I didn’t have to look far.  Isn’t she an awesome writer?  Seriously, this girl is good.  Which is a little scary, as it’s a lot to live up to.  I’ll do my best – I know it won’t be as awesome as you’re used to, but please bear with me.  I have a very delicate disposition and my feelings are easily crushed.  If you don’t like me, please be so good as to talk about it behind my back so that I can’t hear you.  Thanks muchly.  *grin* 

The post entitled Me & My Anonymity, on blogging anonymously, really resonated with me.  It got me to thinking.  Why do some of us blog anonymously?  Why do some of us not?  And if we do, does that mean our entire internet presence is anonymous, too? 

I’m not going to delve into this in huge depth – I do realise I’m just writing a guest post, not delivering a lecture to the Oxford Union – so you can breathe a sigh of relief!  I’m just interested (and devoid of any other inspiration). 

It seems to me that there are essentially two camps:  Those that blog as themselves, who are happy to be open and honest about who they are and where they live, and those who blog anonymously, using only general terms to define their communities and daily lives. There doesn’t really seem to be any in-between.  But what really fascinates me, is whether those who blog anonymously can be more open than those who declare themselves right from the start.  Or do we all, to some extent, censor what we write? 

From a purely personal perspective (hey, that was alliteration, cool!) I am kind of in the middle.  I blog with a sense of relaxed anonymity.  I use pseudonyms for myself, Chipmunk, and anyone else from our everyday lives that I choose to immortalise forever in print.  Or type.  You know what I mean.  Despite that, most people know my real first name.  People also know my general location (south coast UK) and a few other bits and pieces.   

However, that’s as far as it goes.  For any of my social networking accounts that are linked to my blog (Twitter, Plurk, etc), I’m bubbleboo there too.  There are no links to my FaceBook account, which uses my real identity.  Equally, I use a separate e-mail address for my ‘bubbleboo’ persona. 

With Plurk, I am a little bit more relaxed.  My profile is closed to public viewing (as is my FB profile) and this privacy affords me the luxury of being slightly freer with my thoughts and my details – although obviously I am still careful.  I like having my Plurk friends as a closed circle – it means I can be excruciatingly and painfully honest there.  I guess that links in to what VBiC was saying about being more relaxed around other bloggers than you are with people who know you – I totally relate to that, and it seems from the comments on that post that many of you do, too.  I can’t be that honest on FB, because it’s chocka-block with my real-life friendships.  I can’t even do it on my blog. 

Why not?  Well, it’s a whole other thing really, I guess.  Basically, my family and some of my close friends read my blog.  They know who I am.  There is no hiding away from them. And that unfortunately means that, just occasionally, I feel like I have to censor myself.  That I can’t be completely me.  Is that sad?  I guess it is, in a way.  But then, I would probably be equally sad if they felt they couldn’t read what I write.  I could do password-protected posts, I suppose, but then that defeats the object of posting at all, does it not?  And I would hate to make anyone feel that they were shut out.  I would hate to hurt anyone.  I could start a different, completely anonymous blog and not tell any of them about it…but quite frankly, there are not enough hours in the day!  And at least if I know I’m going to be read by my nearest and dearest, it forces me to think long and hard about my writing, rather than spewing it all out in a reactionary fit of rage – which can only be a good thing, right? 

Maybe it also has something to do with self-confidence.  I would imagine that to blog without constraint, and not be anonymous, you would have to be pretty darn comfortable with who you are, your opinions on the world, and your own voice.  To be an honest blogger without the protective cloak of anonymity seems incredibly brave.  Which is so far removed from me it’s not even funny. 

Oops, looks like I went ever-so-slightly off-topic there.  Ok, completely off-topic!  Sorry about that!  I’m like that – random thoughts enter my brain and I can’t help but follow them.  Unfortunately, this tends to mean that I completely lose the train of thought that I was on in the first place.  Curse this useless short-term memory of mine!  

I think I’ve wittered on long enough for now.  You’re probably all snoring into your coffee wondering when I’m going to shut the heck up.  Well, that would be now.  I’m going to meander back to The Thought Bubble (which you’re going to start reading now, aren’t you?) and see if I can find any inspiration for my next post over there. 

I hope VBiC has an awesome time back in the UK – I bet after me you can’t wait to have her back!  I love comments, so please don’t be shy – I’m really interested to know what you think.  As long as it’s good, obviously.   

Thanks for reading!