General

When writing this blog previously, I struggled with disclosure. What is appropriate to share in a personal blog? There are those who believe that no personal or identifying information should be shared on the internet. One could even go so far as to say that an opinion written on a blog could be sharing too much information. But what would be the entertainment and the fun in keeping all of the interesting material to oneself? I think a good rule to live by is to only share the things that you would be willing to share with a stranger. Something that you would share with a best friend might be something to be kept private. Would you care if your enemy had their hands on this information? No, then you are probably ok. Due to the rights and feelings of others, one’s personal life should not be shared on the internet when it relates to other people. It can be very difficult to tell what they would agree to share in a public arena. So, rule of thumb: only share things you are comfortable with having everyone know about you.

Now that I know what information to share or not to share, it is still difficult to decide what topics to write about and how to write them. It is one thing to write a journal to oneself, a letter to a single person, or even a blog that you know only a few close friends and family will be reading. And it seems pretty apparent the kinds of topics one should write for a very public blog, say a newspaper or other source for important information. But what about blog whose focus is on friends and family but might be read by complete strangers? How do you write to an unknown audience when sharing information about yourself? Normally, when telling stories or sharing personal information, one is able to know the audience beforehand and to gauge their reaction during the course of the telling. But how does one weave a story or address audiences that are unknown? I guess this is the struggle that a very private writer would have to make when moving into the public sphere. So, who knows, maybe this will be good for me.