Doubt this will be a popular post – but here it goes:
Why not privacy? I’ve got friends/family who think I’m nuts for posting so much on my blog. I disagree with them on lots – but I’m in a season of life right now where most of the things in my mind/on my heart aren’t for everyone. I grew up in a church where everything is secretive – how you feel, where you go on vacation, how your doing physically – it felt like everything happened behind close doors and hidden from the church. I’ve never wanted to live my life that way, which is one reason I wanted to have a blog and routinely post to it – I want to be as authentic as possible. I think the people we pastor(ed) don’t need us to fake that life is always okay and we’re always happy.
On the other hand, with the trend of blogs and more importantly, Twittering, there is no privacy. Living in ministry is enough of living in a fish bowl for me – I don’t need to tell everyone where I am and what I’m doing 10 times a day – plus, it’s really not that exciting. Forgive me for sounding like a conspiracy theorist for a moment, but this seems like it’s all a part of people giving up their rights.
So, the point is, I guess the reason I’m not posting much is because I’ve got a lot in my head and on my heart that’s not suitable for posting for the whole world to read…
Good times of moving forward…
mjd
Filed under: Deep Thoughts | Tagged: Blogging, Privacy, Twittering
If you feel it’s helpful to write, you can always mark the post as private (on the write page in Dashboard there’s a box to check on the right side labeled “keep post private”).
That’s how I am too. I will admit there are things I skirt around if I post at all because I worry about opinions. But we do that in real life all the time. We share some things with only certain people and some things we tell everyone who will listen.
Livejournal has a nifty thing where I can pick and choose which friends will see something. I’ve recently cleared out some friends (long story, but realized they really weren’t friends) but at the time having a “for friends who will understand” custom lock was nice.
I call myself shy, but I am rather open, especially online. However, I’m still guarded about certain things. I’ve dealt with too many differing opinions varying from petty issues to things that are very serious. I’m tired of that, so I am often guarded about “controversial” issues.
I have had “friends” from many spectrums. There are only a very few that either I feel don’t judge me or feel me weak/blind, etc. (how some non-christians see us). I’m learning more and more that what I need from my friends is acceptance for who I am already. That what I need to change about myself, I already know and no one can help me actually do other than myself.
I spent a long time in doubt and decided to get rid of that doubt. I am prone to doubt. I’ve (in a way) eaten from the tree of knowledge (opening my mind to logic over faith) and it was such a miserable time. I didn’t find peace till I stopped caring about that.
I decided I rather be a “sheep” (the bad way the world uses it) and at peace than open-minded and constantly in upheaval.
Same sentiments from half a world away. My i.ph blog has deeply granular privacy settings and lets me create custom privacy groups. I can select which posts can be seen by who. I find that I use it an awful lot as some of the more compelling things I have to write about are best kept to a smaller much trusted circle. Sure I could just keep it to myself but I find that the mere act of writing things down help me deal with it. Plus the feedback I get from the people I choose to share certain things to is just priceless. The proper use of these privacy controls allow blogs to be more like conversations and I believe that’s really how it should be.