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evacado responded to an earlier post in my journal, and it made me think of the following question. i decided to cut and paste it into a new entry, because i'm curious what people think about this. so here's my reply to her comment (in which she observes that the entry in question is very candid):
yeah...not sure how i feel about being so candid. sometimes i go back and cut things out, if having it "out there" in this forum makes me feel too vulnerable. how about you? how much do you censor the stuff you post, and do you have any specific criteria for deciding whether or not to post something?
so my answer to this question...i *do* censor myself to some extent. i try never to post anything that might embarrass someone else, especially if it will be obvious to other readers who that someone else is...so i obviously avoid using real names, or too much identifying detail. but i don't mind all that much if people read my own personal thoughts and feelings, foibles, weaknesses, quirks, etc. i think the *main* thing i worry about is being too self-indulgent, or engaging in too much solipsistic yet public navel-gazing (i think i do that sometimes, which is a little embarrassing to think about and to admit). but usually, writing about something personal is just part of my process of working through it or getting it out of my system, channeling it into a more useful direction. i've had conversations with my friend J (of the cross-country car ride in august) about this--he asks, "why blog? why not just write it in your private journal?" a legitimate question i don't have an easy answer for. maybe it *is* just narcissistic and self-indulgent, i don't know.
however, politically speaking, i think "we as a culture" (huge scare quotes on that gross ovesimplification!) are too invested in denying that we have feelings, that we experience turmoil, especially turmoil that sometimes threatens to overwhelm us. i feel the same way about expressing anger, sadness, love, or whatever--any strong emotion, really. i think it would be *better* if people felt more comfortable being open--i think it would help us to connect to each other, to feel empathy, and to become more aware of the ways in which our culture alienates people, and to start (or continue) questioning the assumption that strong emotion or difficulty indicates a personal weakness. it doesn't always, doesn't even *usually* indicate that, i'd argue--often it indicates a social, cultural, economic, or political problem. to quote a line from a rather bad movie that i nevertheless enjoyed very much (pump up the volume with christian slater), "feeling fucked up, in a fucked up time and place, does not mean that *you* are fucked up." so, this doesn't mean i think everyone should go around crying on the shoulders of strangers, or yelling at people unnecessarily, though i can envision situations in which both of those things might happen and might *need* to happen. for example, sometimes a good rant is exactly what's called for, and the only way a person can draw attention to injustice.
it's an interesting question. thoughts, anyone?
yeah...not sure how i feel about being so candid. sometimes i go back and cut things out, if having it "out there" in this forum makes me feel too vulnerable. how about you? how much do you censor the stuff you post, and do you have any specific criteria for deciding whether or not to post something?
so my answer to this question...i *do* censor myself to some extent. i try never to post anything that might embarrass someone else, especially if it will be obvious to other readers who that someone else is...so i obviously avoid using real names, or too much identifying detail. but i don't mind all that much if people read my own personal thoughts and feelings, foibles, weaknesses, quirks, etc. i think the *main* thing i worry about is being too self-indulgent, or engaging in too much solipsistic yet public navel-gazing (i think i do that sometimes, which is a little embarrassing to think about and to admit). but usually, writing about something personal is just part of my process of working through it or getting it out of my system, channeling it into a more useful direction. i've had conversations with my friend J (of the cross-country car ride in august) about this--he asks, "why blog? why not just write it in your private journal?" a legitimate question i don't have an easy answer for. maybe it *is* just narcissistic and self-indulgent, i don't know.
however, politically speaking, i think "we as a culture" (huge scare quotes on that gross ovesimplification!) are too invested in denying that we have feelings, that we experience turmoil, especially turmoil that sometimes threatens to overwhelm us. i feel the same way about expressing anger, sadness, love, or whatever--any strong emotion, really. i think it would be *better* if people felt more comfortable being open--i think it would help us to connect to each other, to feel empathy, and to become more aware of the ways in which our culture alienates people, and to start (or continue) questioning the assumption that strong emotion or difficulty indicates a personal weakness. it doesn't always, doesn't even *usually* indicate that, i'd argue--often it indicates a social, cultural, economic, or political problem. to quote a line from a rather bad movie that i nevertheless enjoyed very much (pump up the volume with christian slater), "feeling fucked up, in a fucked up time and place, does not mean that *you* are fucked up." so, this doesn't mean i think everyone should go around crying on the shoulders of strangers, or yelling at people unnecessarily, though i can envision situations in which both of those things might happen and might *need* to happen. for example, sometimes a good rant is exactly what's called for, and the only way a person can draw attention to injustice.
it's an interesting question. thoughts, anyone?
