Fear of Exposure – How Much Disclosure is Too Much?

A common fear among new bloggers is the fear of exposing personal information to the vast Internet audience.

It may seem that every other person on the Internet is exposing themselves, literally and figuratively, in ways that would make Jerry Springer blush. In some online circles, if you're not wearing a thong in your photo, something's wrong with you.

Yet, in this environment, there's also an understandable drive and need to protect our privacy as well as dignity.

We also want to save our jobs. We've all heard those few high profile cases where people got fired due to their blog content. (Remember the Delta Airlines flight attendant who was sacked for posting silly photos of herself in her uniform online?)

So getting started with a personal blog in an environment where disclosure can often mean baring everything and losing everything can be a tricky business.

I've been blogging on and off for a few years, and also reading various blogs as well. In choosing how much to divulge, consider:

1. Will this hurt your family and friends?

2. Will this put your job in jeopardy?

3. Most importantly: Is such a disclosure really interesting anyway?

I believe number three should be the first and foremost consideration when sharing personal information. Personal information done well can be the most engaging, intimate, and powerful form of writing. Personal information done in an indulgent, self-serving way is simply dull and pointless, and it's that sort of writing that is damn embarrassing.

One of my favorite blogs is Moments of Adequacy, which is relatively unknown and written by a guy who is a technology consultant, not a professional writer. I don't even remember how I found this little gem, but this guy is one of the funniest writers I have ever read. Some of his posts are absolute classics.

Recently, he separated from his wife. He shared this on his blog. I've never met the guy, but because he shares stories about his family, I feel a sense of intimacy with him as writer. I appreciate that he has shared his personal life changes with his readers. I don't find it self-indulgent or dull in anyway.

Many of the stories he shares about his family are rather humorous, and even when he's making fun of his kids, it's a gentle ribbing that somehow manages to show their human foibles (and his) without making anyone look bad.

On the other side of it, I've seen blogs (and even professional newsletters) where people post crowing pats on the back about their new baby or all the great things going on their lives. I'm not interested in seeing a zillion photos of some new baby for a family I've never met – only their closest friends care (and even then, I'm sure many would prefer to not be bombarded with all the “good news”).

I'm not saying families can't use blogs to keep in touch with friends and family, but make sure you make that distinction before getting started. A blog targeted to the public needs to have something more than just the news that you got a job promotion. Frankly, we don't give a damn. How does your job promotion relate to our world? That's what we want to know.

I think the key to posting personal information to blogs – and making it work – lies in making it entertaining, interesting, or poignant to the many strangers who will be reading it.

If you can accomplish that, then no amount of disclosure will be embarrassing. It will be appreciated and cherished.

If that task sounds too daunting, then stick to subjects you care about – the news, your hobbies, things about the general culture that irk you, fashion trends. Things that people with similar interests would be curious to read.

Regardless, the best advice I have heard on this subject is to just get started. Write, and keep writing. You and your blog will evolve over time. But if you're looking to just start a diary, maybe the old fashion version, that sits in your drawer at home, is a better option.

Comments

[Matthew Rose]

I'm always a little bit hesitant about revealing personal information in my blog. I've always gone by the mantra "Never e-mail something you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the paper" and that's even more true of blogging. It's not because I'm an intensely private person, but more out of respect for friends and co-workers.

I can put all my foibles on my blog that I want, and it only affects me, but I don't want to drag another person into the spotlight without their express permission, and so much of my personal life involves my friends or co-workers that I end up self-censoring mainly out of a respect for others.

[Jeff]

I often write about my family. Similar to your description of Moments of Adequacy I try to find the human "universal" when I write about people.

I'm careful about disclosing personal information. But I can always find an interesting perspective while working around the personal stuff.

As my children are getting older (they are 9 and 8), I realize that they may have an opinion about what I write, when I write about them. I have started to run things by them before posting.

[Unodialia]

All the big corporations depreciate their possessions, and you can, too,
provided you use them for business purposes. For example, if you subscribe
to the Wall Street Journal, a business-related newspaper, you can deduct the
cost of your house, because, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Chief
Justice Warren Burger in a landmark 1979 tax decision: "Where else are you
going to read the paper? Outside? What if it rains?"
-- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://luisingrampo.easyjournal.com