Today I told my best friend off for being too impersonal. And then she told me off for being too personal. I think she was right, because she was writing a fairly formal email to a sort-of customer, and I have often been told off by other friends when attempting to write formally (or rather, they just take over), or am laughed at by teachers when I walk into their class and greet them with “yo”. Note: I only do this with teachers who can handle it.
However, this is so not what I was going to blog about. I have always been slightly bemused at the fact that some bloggers choose to blog about personal issues on their LiveJournal account, and blog about everything else on their actual blog (which in theory makes perfect sense, because you can make an LJ friends-only… although you can password protect entries on your blog, but some people don’t have the guts to ask for the password – whatever basically). I’m not one of those people – there are very few topics I will not blog about, and I wouldn’t bother posting it in my LJ because the same advice/comments I would want from friends there I can get in touch with (and other friends) elsewhere.
Anyway, this got me thinking about the bloggers who blog about absolutely nothing personal on their blog, and only post when they have something interesting to say or start a debate. Some of these posts and blogs can be really thought-provoking and interesting, but I always view the actual blog as a whole, as impersonal and disconnected from the person behind it.
And then there are the people who do, like me, post about their personal lives. Sometimes it can get a little too much (you need an impersonal one once in a while), and sometimes I just don’t want to know (I think you need to be able to write well to get away with it, rather than just listing your day), but these are the blogs I enjoy and subscribe to the most. I like to know what people are thinking, what’s going on in their lives, how they are feeling – it’s that way you get to know someone, can empathise with them, and make friends.
BUT: is blogging all about making friends? Most people blog (I think) because they like to tell the world what they are thinking, or to impart information, not to make friends.
And yet I’ve made more friends through the internet than I have IRL (that’s how good my social skills are), and a sizeable chunk through blogging, and finding people who share the same opinions (or not) as me, who I can relate to.
So, to all you impersonal bloggers: maybe you actually have a life off your computer. But to all of you more personal ones, blogging is the new friend-finding tool. Make use of it (and be my friend!)
Unrelated: said best friend is going to lend me another Jodi Picoult book or two soon, along with one about sex and an orchestra she thinks I’ll like. There are way too many books with sex and incest she “thinks I’ll like”.
I’ve just realised this whole post makes me sound like I’m on speed. That’s what you get when you start blogging about one thing, type as you think and end up blogging about something completely different.
There’s a delicate balance between impersonal and personal, I find. My blog is more on the side of impersonal, but I have a personal friends-only LJ that I make use of. However, I do mix in some personal things on my blog every now and then, but definitely not to the detail and extent in my LJ. Regardless of being (im)personal or not, I think it’s important that blogs are interesting and inventive so that readers keep coming back out of interest for both the content and a connection to the blogger.
I don’t blog about personal things very often, although my blog is becoming more personal. I don’t know – I’m more interested in opinions/debates, and not very interested in what happens in people’s lives, unless they’re one of a select few who can make ANYTHING interesting. Anyway, I think that opinions are pretty personal.
As for my LJ… I’ve just started using it. I use it for pointless things that I don’t want to clutter my blog with, or things that I don’t want everyone to read. And I don’t really care about the quality of writing on my LJ, so it’s probably pretty hard to get through my posts.
Hey, let’s be friends!!
I feel like my blog isn’t as personal as it could be, but I like a certain level of detachment. I dunno, it’s personal enough xD
Kaylee’s last blog post..Random stuff about food
I have both a public blog and a LiveJournal. My LJ came first (I migrated off into a public blog when I wanted more exposure), but my blog entries are now crossposted into the LJ for archival purposes – database backups are well and good, but they can fail!
As far as I see it:
1) Public blog: Anything goes, except things that can lead to repercussions later on in my career or adult life. So, I won’t bitch about work, I won’t talk about specific jobs I apply for, I won’t go into full detail about my sex life (I hint, but never go explicit) etc.
2) LiveJournal: Friends-locked entries deal with things that may have career and later life repercussions. I also do memes on LJ, and some shorter personal entries too, about things that are very family-unfriendly (e.g. saucy text messages, etc.), or simply too banal to turn into a full entry (e.g. a three sentence post on Ciara’s music).
It’s a system that works well for me, though I have periods where I neglect one for the other.
On a final note – if you like sex/incest books (lol), John Irving’s “The Hotel New Hampshire” is actually quite a good read with literary merit. It’s not written for mere shock value.
I’m not sure whether my blogging would be classed as ‘personal’ or ‘impresonal’. I do write about the things I do, but it’s never usually anything I’ve actually done IRL. I just bore people with internet things or any topics that have begun to bug me. I don’t blog about my life just because I 1) have nothing to blog about, and 2) because I hate giving too much about myself away, because I’m very different IRL to what I’m like on the internet. I suppose I might edge more towards impersonal than personal. I dunno. =/
I use a proper paper journal to write personal stuff in, just because most of it I would never feel comfortable in putting online, even if only a select few people were to see it. I feel really uncomfortable, in all honesty, when people start writing about their personal lives in great details or posting pictures of their family and such. I feel like ‘wait, should I really be reading this?’. I know it’s their choice whether or not they want to broadcast it to the entire world, but I still feel weird reading it.
Which Picoult books is your friend lending you? ^_^
Aimee’s last blog post..Penpalling (is that a word?)
I totally get what you mean by blogs being too impersonal, or too personal. I always try to balance my blogs, vary them, you know?
I love Jodi Piccoult! Her books have so much psychology in them, it really interests me. Which ones is she lending to you? Bleh, I don’t really like those sex books.. I don’t really find them appealing, just weird.
-Sarah