being gay and it's nice to
be able to share those kinds of things every once in a while. It's kind
of therapeutic to be able to vent to my faceless followers (not that I
have many). Plus those things are part of my geeky life. But the real question is, what is too personal and how much of my personal life do I really want out there. I mean I'm already a pretty open person when it comes to the internet, I've been blogging full time for over seven years. But I do hold back on certain topics.. maybe I should reconsider. What do you guys think? I'd appreciate your thoughts on this subject... thanks
Hey Kenny. For me, talking and venting online (not in a whiny, woe-is-me way is really helpful. And I am very careful to not to involve things that include other people who may not be as comfortable with me sharing something that involves them.
ReplyDeleteLast month I posted about my husband leaving me on Youtube. I sent him the video first to make sure he was comfortable with what I was saying. We are still in limbo with our relationship, and I don't share much that isn't with friends unless I feel it will be helpful to myself and others.
Anyway, just do what feels right. And always think about it for a while before doing it. :)
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Ginny McQueen
I'm struggling with this one myself, while my site's on a bit of a start-of-the-semester hiatus. I started Fandom Lenses because of personal stuff I was processing, which itself intersected with Fandom (and one fandom in particular) in a very odd, borderline macabre, and creepily coincidental way during 2012. As I've flowed out of that headspace the last couple months I've added my real name to the originally pseudonymmed site and even linked my fandom blog to my librarian/PhD blog, but right now I'm paradoxically trying to shift toward being less personal and exploring fandom as a phenomenon in a manner that's thought-provoking without being needlessly "academic". Perhaps the question is, does getting personal help you make the point you're trying to argue, or serve your artistic purpose? Listening to the MASH podcast the other day, I thought your discussion of being gay in the context of the episode was a very good example of walking a good balance--it seemed like a natural part of the discussion and flowed from the larger point you were making in that excellent discussion. it made it a more interesting argument as well as my favorite episode of the podcast thus far. I probably didn't answer your question (seems like one we'll both have to sort out for ourselves), but does that help? :-)
ReplyDeleteI have two blogs, the one for friends and family and whatever where I talk about life stuff that's by invite only, the other is very different. It is my place to say whatever the heck I want and deals with some very personal issues albeit anonymously. The second blog is pretty popular and it's shared with a few online communities... I wrestle with whether or not I should reveal my identity on that one. I kind of like the safety of anonymity, yet think it might be better to put a face to the author, but I live in dread of a family member coming across that one. So I waffle with my decision. I guess you could just do what I do and have two, one for personal stuff and one for public stuff. What the? Holy crap you've been posting since 2001?!?!?! Awesome! I've lost my train of thought.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said do whatever you are comfortable with. While I'm sure most of the folks who follow your blog are good friends with you and would be open to hearing about other passions of yours you know very well how negative Internet trolls can be so just be cautious about what strangers might learn about you.
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