When Worlds Collide
Blogging is an interesting thing. Especially when people you know in the real world read your blog. We like to make things interesting, so sometimes when we're writing, we take a little bit of journalistic license. Things can be exaggerated, and sometimes we'll combine multiple people or stories into one, for the sake of getting our point across. We'll even play with timelines or places. It's all about saying what we're trying to say.
And the people we are as bloggers are usually only about 20% of our actual personality, so sometimes that can lead others to have the wrong impression of us. The whole person is usually very different from the person that comes across online. That's why most blog-crushes just don't work out in the real world.
So there's lots of opportunity for real life people to misunderstand or misinterpet the things we write about. On top of that, sometimes one can blog about something that's been on their mind recently (or even hasn't really been on their mind) that coincidentally appears to someone else to be related to them when it's not.
What's my point? Well, in the past couple weeks, I've seen several of my bloggy friends get into some pretty sticky personal situations with friends, dates, or others because said non-blogger misinterpeted something they posted and got upset by it. In fact, I've seen it happen to one person twice in the last week or two with three different friends, and I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they're misinterpeting. It sucks. We let our friends know about these things and read them because y'all matter to us. We like you. We like you to see what's on our minds. We'd rather you read it. But please don't read to much into things. Cause 97% of the time, it's not about you. And if it is, trust me, you'll know before it hits. 'Cause that's just how we roll. The internet's not nearly as real as the real world, and I'd hate to ever run into a situation like a few of my friends are dealing with.
13 comments:
HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT ME!
:-P
That was one of my concerns about starting up a blog, and why I took so long to do it. I'm a very open person -- pretty much if you ask me, I'll tell you the truth. I can keep secrets about my friends, but about myself? I have no secrets. So I was afraid that this openness, being read by everyone, might actually hurt my friendships. We'll see what happens...
So far not telling my friends about this though -- unless they're blogger friends (and I only have one of those as far as I know!)
Great post. It's happened before and it's annoying, but be damned if I'm going to censor every damn word I write over the possibility someone may get offended. I try to keep my blog on the dl now. I don't give out my site name to anyone anymore. Not even the boyfriend.
Non-bloggers just don't understand.
None of my "real life" friends know that I blog, and I'm down with that. I have met some fellow bloggers though in real life, though, and it's interesting.
This whole online thing is interesting.. You try to read into what other people are saying, but in a way it's best not to! Just read it, and take it with a grain of salt. Because you're right, if it's about you, you'll know before it hits!
Word to the 9th power. I narrowly avoided a similar disaster recently. I used my well honed "spin" skills.
Good post about an unfortunate truth. I recently met a guy and somehow the blog came up. He mentioned his first I believe, so I thought he was also be a blogger. Turns out his is more just for his own reference. I mentioned mine before finding that out, he kept asking me about it during our first few dates, and I finally gave him the url out of a desire to be honest about things. Now I feel censored because he reads it. Said he trys not to, but the curiosity is just too great. Sort of feel like I have to choose between him and the blog now. Because I like to write about cute guys & talking to cute guys & that kind of thing kind of hurts him. It's a BUMMER.
Dammit -- VVK stole my joke! That's what I get for falling behind on my blog reading today.
P.S. The word verification thing I have to fill out to comment is "lmintt." Weeeeird.
Thanks for posting on this topic, you said it best.
My blog and non-blog worlds are getting closer and closer to merging every day. Sadly enough that probably means...
Funnily enough, although I wrote about worrying about offending people, my non-blog friends don't really read the blog (most don't work office-type jobs). And even if they did, they wouldn't be surprised by anything I had to say.
When I first started blogging, I was mainly writing for my real life friends. After my "hiatus" a few weeks ago, most of them have stopped reading it, which I actually find I prefer. I haven't yet encountered anything like what you're describing, but I'm wary just the same.
I made the mistake of letting my girlfriend know about my blog, she doesn't like when I writing about her, which in turn takes away tons of great material. So I like to tell her it's her fault my blog sucks in an attempt to guilt her into letting my write about her.
Blogging is like running naked down main street with a paper bag over your head. I have found I am not nearly as anonymous as I thought. It has prompted some...erm...interesting...conversations with people in my life. Some who thought I was talking about them when I wasn't, and some who knew I was talking about them (I was), but reading it all out of context. I am trying to make folks understand that my blog is not the truth, but rather, the truth as I see it, edited for entertainment value, without context. So far, I think they're getting it...
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