Privacy Passwords
I just read an interesting article about the consequences of blogging. So being the “good” blogger that I am, I had to blog about it.
There is a running conversation about blogging and how people are sharing intensely personal details about their life and what, if any, consequences come from such sharing. There is always the famous, and seemingly enviable, Dooce who was fired from her job for blogging and now has one of the most popular blogs on the net. In fact, her blog is so popular that neither she, nor her husband has to work and I just heard that she got a movie deal. Wow, the fairy tale blogger. My two cents, I am not a fan of Ms. Dooce. I respect her success. But I don’t find her dog or her life terribly interesting. Maybe I haven’t given her enough of a chance, but hey, I just don’t seem to digg her….HA! GET IT!! DIGG HER! yeah, really bad cross cultural pun. Ok, moving on.
One of the issues brought up by the article is the idea of posting things that are very personal but putting a password protection on the blog. Why would you do that? So only approved people can view the post? Well….just email them and tell them what is going on in your life. Or have we all lost the general communication skills to be able to communicate directly. We all have to use the internet as a filter. Texting, IMing, emails, social networking profiles and now blogs. I don’t want to tell you I am having a hard time, I want to write about it and let you deduce from my not so subtle clues, that I am having a hard time. That way you can reach out to me in your own blog and if we try hard enough, we can have an entire relationship without ever saying anything directly.
Ok, so that is a bit extreme. I admit, I have been guilty of such posts. I have posted things because somehow it seems easier to write to the unknown masses and hope that someone I care about is reading and will therefore reach out to me in my pathetic typed cry for help. Not to mention, the justification of then being angry at those people for not reaching out and not reading. The world is all about me, so why aren’t they paying avid attention to what I write? Uh, yeah. Narcissism aside, isnt that what blogging is. It is a self indulgent validation. Yes it is a a way to communicate, but it quickly moves past sharing photos from the last vacation and moves on to a socio-philosophical dissection of the relevancy of our lives. Beyond the fact that we like writing, we also like reading other people who are doing the same thing! I do. I admit it! Guilty! and that is ok.
But there is truth to the fact that in the age of the internet and rapidly developing technology, when you put something out there, it is really out there. You can’t erase it. It is there for someone to find and possibly hold against you. When I found myself writing blogs that I only felt comfortable posting with a password protection, I stopped myself. I thought, who is going to read this? well, my close friends. In that case, why don’t I just tell them what is going on? Why do I need to blog it? Am I really that important that I can’t speak directly to them? uh…no. Also, if it needs password protection, then maybe I shouldn’t be putting it out there. How hard is my password going to be to crack? Probably not very, I am not that clever.
So my rule of thumb, if you have to put a password on it, then don’t post it. This is safe blogging at the most basic.
Web Crap |2 Responses to “Privacy Passwords”
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I only understand the password protected site concept if it is meant for family and friends ONLY. But like you said, why bother otherwise.
Now excuse me while I work on my blogging fairy tale of fame;
“Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up…”
Write on!