Anonymous Blogging

A couple of months of blogging have taught me a couple of things:

1. I enjoy blogging much more than I expected.
2. I should have created an anonymous blog.

I did consider creating an anonymous blog at the beginning, but since I figured my readers would primarily be keeping up with the girls, the idea seemed rather silly.  Relatives would know who we all are.  Other people wouldn't care.  And with MY last name, I might as well be anonymous anyway.  I do avoid posting details such as the name of my daughter's school or teacher, naked bath photos, our home address, but that's just to stave off the crazies.

Turns out that friends/relatives are not reliable blog readers (with a few exceptions--thank you!) but enough of them read occasionally that I am constrained in what I can say.  At least THREE TIMES now, I've unwittingly offended people I care about.  Yes, me!  With this bland whitebread blog! 

And I can't write about a big change that is potentially happening at work.  I can't write freely about my daughter's interactions with her friends.  None of my more abstract thoughts seem insightful enough to commit them to writing, or at least, when I finally find time to write about them, I am so exhausted that I cannot tell whether or not I'm embarrassing myself . . . so  . . . I'm getting blocked.

Maybe the "anonymity" issue is just a red herring.  Maybe if I had created an anonymous blog, I'd STILL be blocked.  The words "blog" and "block" are just one phoneme apart, after all.

I notice that the blogs I enjoy are all written by obviously real, interesting people.  But when I talk to people I know who blog, many of them tell me that they work to keep their IRL friends from knowing about their blogs.  Paradox?

Comments

[LiL]

Yes, this whole anonymous or not thing is a constant dilemma for me too. A part of me wants to retain as much of my little remaining anonymity as possible but another part of me wants to just be myself and not worry about it. Which would then mean just what you're saying: that I'd have to constrain myself to writing "safe" things.

I think that in the end, this is the sort of thing because of which people write novels, and when someone comes to them and says, but you based that nasty character on me, they can just say, no I didn't it's all fictional.

Which of course they probably never quite are.

[Dylan]

I thought about that too... and I think there are things that I don't talk about, not so much so my friends won't read them (because I'm a pretty upfront WYSIWYG sort of guy), but there are certain things I don't want my family to know about.

It just becomes a matter of making a decision to be real and therefore possibly offensive, or be non-offensive and not really write what you want to write. Nothing wrong with either one.

But if you start an anonymous blog, you MUST share the URL with lil ole me.

[Mel]

I have a pseudonymous blog -- anyone who knows me well who read it semi-regularly would probably figure out it was me -- but I haven't been telling anyone who knows me well that I blog, to avoid precisely that situation. It's weird whichever way you decide to go. . . if you start a pseud blog, pls comment so we can find you still...

[New Kid on the Hallway]

I've taken pretty much the same route as Mel and it seems to work for me, though I understand LiL's perspective too, about wishing I could just be me. Occasionally, too, if someone says something nice about my blog, I wish I could take credit for it! I think there are strengths and weakness to both approaches (pseudonym/real life).

[Melissa]

While my blog isn't anonymous, I haven't told any of my friends about it. My family knows about my blog, but because of the nature of it, they don't really visit too often!!! But I always fret that somebody who knows me might stumble upon my blog (or my sister might some day decide to take a look at it), so I try not to write about friends or family.

I'm not sure if I haven't told my friends because they hear most of my rantings anyway or if because not everyone truly understands the outlet blogging provides (at least for me) and subsequently might find it silly....

I do like the fact that none of my friends knows about my blog -- for the most part, I can write openly about almost anything.

[Rana]

I so hear you on this one. Even though I'm pseudonymous, there are some things I'm desperately wanting to blog about but can't, because the people involved read my blog. *sigh*

[Beth]

If only I had the energy to keep two blogs, one for family, one for just me! If I ever *find* the energy, I misht just experiment; I'd be sure to let y'all know where I was. :)

(It must be a little scary to start a new blog and not know a soul who might read it! Sort of like throwing a party and not being able to invite anyone you know. Hats off to you brave bloggers.)

[Denise]

I never seriously considered an anonymous blog. Moreover, I have tried very hard to NOT constrain what I write because of the wide variety of people who read my blog (my mother, my children, my sister, my friends, fellow law students, professors, people I know only through the blogosphere and even the people who had my blog translated into German whom I've never met)! I am sure I've offended some of them at one time or another. In fact, some weeks ago I posted a letter from my sister to one of my kids (that my sister had copied to me) and one of my *other* kids objected (I had my sister's permission to post it). I took the letter down (with appropriate explanation on the blog). In the end, I felt the honesty that I try to represent on my blog was worth the risk. All of these people get to "see" me for who I am, warts and all.

[SeaRabbit]

Hello... as a new blogger, blogging in French, and a mom, and a fulltime worker, I'm happy I found you... Made me feel a bit lonely in my blog, knowing you have so many interlocutors, what I lack a lot, but my French is probably the issue, more than my anonymosity...;-)) what a word...;-) but I though about that too.. and if I do it that way... anonymously... who's gonna read me in French??? There are already a few people awared of my new blog... not sure if they are reading, I think so... but without me telling them... no one pointed his nose so far...
Anyway... it is a good question... and I will keep you in my blog to follow...;-))
SeaR

[Beth]

Hi SeaRabbit! I looked at your blog and really really wished I could read French. :( My current theory is that if you update regularly and if you're sure to read/comment on other people's blogs, an audience will find you. Time will tell if I'm right.

Thanks so much for stopping by!