Pretending for a moment that there are people reading this blog who don’t already know me well…how much of myself do I, and you, want me to reveal? There are those who bring their family and personal life into their blog (David Hepworth often mentions family members), and others who keep their sites purely as a commentary tool.
As I am hoping to use this site as a discussion of popular culture and the like, how necessary is it for me to reveal myself…and would you want me to anyway? Personal details such as age, sexual orientation may have an impact on my views, so would you need to know these in order to put my opinions into context? Do you need to know who my favourite bands are, and who I hate, so you can filter out the bias (warning, U2 and The Stereophonics are never going to get positive comments here)?
It seems to me that publishing something, whether it be on the web or a printed medium, gives it gravitas and credence. By posting this blog, I am saying that my views are worthwhile and should be taken into account. Should I therefore be giving a potted CV, letting you make up your mind as to whether I am qualified to criticise (answer: not really)?
But then that is sort of the point, it has been commonly observed that the internet is allowing everybody to have their say, whether others want to hear it or not. I like to think of it as the letters page from a magazine or newspaper. There are the silly little feuds and insults so beloved of NME readers, but also the purposefully serious opinions of Telegraph readers. The major difference is of course that there is an editor of these publications, choosing which letters to put in, whereas the internet is open to all. The only editing available is self editing.
Which brings up another interesting point. How much do I choose to write about, and how much of what I really believe should I express? I would quite like people reading this to like me, so is revealing that I was a massive Jason Donovan fan (to the extent of having his autograph) something I should be doing? Or will I, be it conscious or unconscious, choose to self-edit my views into what I perceive to be cool? Blogs are personal. They style is more open, and the content more subjective than any commentary that has gone before it, but the question is how much to I push this. I’m not suggesting I should be sharing gynaecological details, but if the odd personal note creeps in, I don’t think this is a bad thing. Do you?
1 comment:
I think that it all depends on your own experiences of blogging. For example, I started off with the teen-requisite diaryland and livejournals (the latter of which I still have, mostly for keeping friends in the loop), and see my blog as a bit of a commentary tool like you say.
Personal stuff doesn't really go into it, but only because I don't think it is really all that relevant. You're right though, some things might be useful to slip in, such as age and, say, musical taste.
In the end I guess it all depends on what you are blogging about. And besides, 99% of us are blogging pretty much for ourselves - if anyone else gets something out of what we have to say, then that's just a bonus as far as I'm concerned!
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