To blog or not to blog, that is the question.

A friend of mine wrote me a very nice email a few days back asking about this blog and why I hadn't been posting much as of late. It made me realize in fact that I hadn't been posting, although the truth is that I have been writing a lot - just not actually hitting that "publish" button. When I sat back and thought about why that was, it seemed like there were three main reasons at play.

First, as of late, I seem to be settling on topics that are very personal and to be quite frank, writing about them with a triteness that I suspect would do (only) a high school student proud. They leave me a bit embarrassed for myself after reading them, so much so that I can't imagine what other people would think. In the end, I simply erase the posts, thus explaining a pretty big portion of the blank space on IT these days. 

Second, I had this very odd experience a few months ago where someone I knew only casually but was hoping to know a lot better referred to something very personal that I had mentioned in my blog at least two years back. As I read through my previous posts, I realized that everything from my quirky to rote habits are so out there for everyone who's interested to see and know, which isn't always entirely good. While I certainly appreciate the opportunity for Internet stalking of a potential romantic interest when it benefits me, when the tables are turned, it seems intrusive and provides strange fodder for conversation. That experience has given me cause to think just what it is that I want people to know about me in the future who maybe already don't know me now.

Third, technology moves on and what has become somewhat evident to me is that 25 word status updates in Facebook seem to fill my need to know and make known pretty much everything that's worthy of comment in my world. Why write paragraphs when you can write a sentence? Of course that's not entirely true because I love my previous blog posts but it's just so easy to call it a day with those updates. 

So that leaves my future blogging and my past blogs in limbo right now. Reason 3 is a bit facetious, because blogging certainly has been and continues to be an outlet for writing that I enjoy. But when I enjoy it the most, it seems to lead to Reasons 1 and 2.  Dunno.

In the end, and to answer your question Nicole, I've decided I'm going to have to have a serious think about the pros and cons of keeping my blog up. As for your other request for juicy gossip as to what I've been up to as of late, I'll take the opportunity to answer that offline, at least for now.

Comments

[dhawhee]

This very thing has been gnawing at me too, in case you couldn't tell. Partly not wanting to blog about central stuff that was not so much for public consumption, and partly settling for facebook as an audience that is slightly more restricted (though still unwieldy). Let's talk about this more when I'm there!

[km]

Agreed. I'm definitely looking forward to talking through and pondering this more - along with so many other things!

[Joe]

I take it you've decided to not blog. Twitter and facebook are great ways to make quick updates and express your thoughts in one line to your network. But its difficult to put all your thoughts in the 140 characters they allow! I say continue blogging, allowing only your personal network to read anything thats close to heart.