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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

To share or not to share ...............

When I first opened my other blog I used to share a fair amount. I have always been quite careful about sharing too much personal details, but I was very free with what I shared on there. Brenda was small and we were doing much more "interesting" things. When I first discovered Facebook I even put my phone number on there since I thought that everyone I knew there was my friend, so I wouldn't mind them knowing my phone number. Then I got my first friend request from somebody who was not a personal friend, although it was somebody I vaguely knew. This made me wake up a little bit and realise that you can never be careful because you actually never know who is reading your profile, so I cut back a lot on what I was prepared to share. When I first got this lecturing job I never had any of my students as friends, then ex-students started inviting me, and I would accept them, and then it eventually led to present students inviting me. I am never sure if this is the right thing to do, but I make absolutely sure that what I am posting on facebook is not inappropriate but rather general things. I have also had an incident where one of Brenda's friends has teased her about what I put on facebook. (her mother had shown her) As a result I am much more careful as to not only what I post, but also how I word what I have posted. Another thing I have also always been careful about is not to post pictures of other people's children, as much as possible.
Anyway, back to the blog. In some ways I feel that this is more "private" since not many of my real-life friends even know about this blog and so I can offload a bit or share more personal (upsetting) things without it coming back to me. So, if I say something on here, I know that all the people around me don't know about it, which they would if it was on facebook. There is a lot going on at home and work at the moment and it would be very tempting to offload to people I don't know in real life who will give me objective (hopefully) support.  But the flip-side of this is that with a blog you really have no idea who is reading, and you have no control over who is reading this. Anybody could stumble along these posts and use them to their advantage, find out information about me and my family. I guess you can never be too careful. I could always go private, but then I think that that defeats the whole object of having a blog, which to me is to be part of the community.
So, what do I share, or what do I hope to share? I will continue to post about things we do (omitting too much personal information) I would also just like to post about random incidences which occur in my life, obviously with a little bit of crafting thrown in. One of my favourite blogs is here and I would like mine to be just like Jo's when it grows up!

8 comments:

  1. I so agree. U can never be sure who u are sharing to so what is too much info and what is not enough.
    However, I suppose the good way of looking at it....there is less liklihood of gossip (unless a workmate reads it!!)
    Hi, by the way, over from class xx

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  2. hi, I'm over from the class too. I think you have to be very careful what you share especially where children are concerned.

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  3. I agree, there's a lot to consider about when and where to share. We don't have kids yet, but as you say that definitely makes things complicated too. I hope that you find the right balance!

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  4. I am also from BFS and this is something I really struggle with a lot. A LOT! I have started and stopped blogs so many times. I have decided not to use DD's name and my blog will primarily be about me and my creativity. I share more about her on FB where all of the relatives can read. I hope that works for me and you find something that works for you :)

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  5. Just popping over from the class. Great post, sums it up quite well :-)

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  6. It really is all about balance...and how much you are prepared to share personal info.

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  7. Hiya! I agree 2! It's sometimes hard to get the balance right, I love meeting new people that enjoy the same hobbies and interests but sometimes think ...who else is looking at my blog...! Is the worry gonna stop me blogging ...no way! I love it too much now!

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  8. Hi Tracey, yes balance and common sense for me too.

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