When blogging crashes into real life
Writing here has not only been a creative outlet for me but it’s also how I deal with things that I feel strongly about. For example, the stuff about irrational jealousy and my grandmother. The first has lost me a friend but I have yet to hear anything about the second. Though my father has mentioned perhaps I should not have posted it, even if most of the family knows that I did not make up anything in what I wrote.
Amongst people whom I know in real life, I think that I’m the most comfortable with laying my life bare online. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone in my life is as comfortable with that as I am. My skin is probably too thick for my own good. I may not care what people think of me, especially people that I don’t care for, but others care about how they are perceived and I should be more sensitive to that.
When blogging crashes into real life, I would definitely choose real life over it. An online life can be great but not when it is detrimental to the real. Over the past two years, I believe that I have allowed the fine line between what’s bloggable and what’s not to blur, especially where it concerns the people in my life. To friends and family who I may have caused trouble for, I sincerely apologise.
Self-censorship will be tricky but it looks like it’s gonna be a necessity. All of us being so interconnected by technology, we don’t know whose path we may cross now or in the future. I may throw myself at the mercy of the Internet gods, but from hereon I promise not to drag you down with me. 
11 Responses to “When blogging crashes into real life”
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anyway no matter how nicely u write your blog or whether you did or did not blog about it, u cant make everyone happy.
life is short, just do whatever make us happy
cant make everyone happy i guess.
words are only words but they can certainly kill in some cases.
Cherisher: true that. even if I leave out my inner circle in the stories, there will be acquaintances of acquaintances who might get upset. hopefully, I will be able to find a good balance.
natnatniv: yeah agreed, but I still have to choose between that and not having anyone in my life because they are afraid of showing up in my blog. that’s both the upside and downside of having a well-read blog.
when I started my blog, I jus tot of sharing some tots, or some of my day-to-day happenings. To me it can be interesting for my folks to read and for myself to go back and think abt certain things few yrs dwn the rd. But now it has come to a point when some frens read and disclose some secrets tat i hv…resulting that I hv to do some “censorship” b4 i blog and at most times, I hv to use replacement terms. =_=
And for tat matter, nw I still keep a hard copy diary, even b4 i started blogging in ’04.
I find that blogging is indeed a platform that allows you to bare your soul without too many restraints…maybe cos you don’t have to deal with the immediate reactions from those around you, like in the physical world.
But as I discover more friends and relatives are reading my blog, I tend to be more mindful about what/who I blog about. It’s something that I didn’t expect when I first started blogging.
mf: yeah it gets a little bit more difficult once the readership circle expands. I commend the fact that you keep a hard copy diary – that takes a lot of dedication.
blur ting: agree completely about not having to deal with the immediate physical reactions. Good and bad. Good because you are really honest, but bad in that you might step on somebody’s toes inadvertently.
It’s a double-edge sword – you want ppl to read your blog, but that comes with its own price.
With great Power comes great responsibility.
Haha.
Hope everythings is fine now.
Lupin: “with great power …”, yeah it kinda feels like that. Hah!
It’s cool now – just had to suck up the pride, and apologise publicly and privately.
It’s a big challenge. I always try to imagine that the person I am writing about it is going to read it and then go from there about protecting, deleting, whatever. No one I know reads my blogs as far as I know, but just in case.
I worked out when I was at school that putting negative things in writing was a bad move. Exchanging notes about a disliked teacher in class. Evidence!
I keep a journal for the mental health pleasure of getting things off my chest and down on paper.
Joh: too right – putting something down in writing is evidence. It’s something that I always teach junior colleagues: cover your ass!
Conversely, it works against us when we blog. The old-school journal idea is a good one.
[...] talked about self-censorship and keeping my mouth shut before. But it remains a tricky proposition. Some friends are ok with it, [...]