Can You Blog in 3D?
Blogging is, I think, a two-dimensional operation in more than the obvious ways.
Sure - text, pictures and videos are necessarily two-dimensional. But what about the picture inside your head? You may know what a blogger had for dinner last night, but do you know how he treats his friends? You may know the ins and outs of a certain shall-remain-nameless person’s shoe collection, but do you know her heart?
That’s a big statement to make, you might say. Sure, there aren’t enough words or minutes in a day to share everything, but does everyone really hide a huge chunk of who they are?
I think so. I honestly do. There are too many good reasons to do so. Friends and family who read the blog, and could be hurt by some disclosures. Concerns about identity theft. Not wanting abuse from complete strangers who trawl the blogosphere searching for people’s vulnerabilities. Cyber-stalkers. Haters. Trolls. Just plain pains-in-the-arse.
Does that make blogging a bad thing, or a dishonest one? Nope. I think any sharing of information – be it personal or impersonal – is great. Just never make the mistake of thinking that you know someone inside and out from what they post on a blog. Because your picture’s two-dimensional, and there’s a whole ‘nother side to them that you’ve never seen.
All my blog readers are welcome to come and do some of my domestic chores any time if they would like to see more of my life.
Your post reminds me that I really don’t necessarily want to meet bloggers. I am happy with the level of interaction that I get, but then I am a shallow kind of a guy.
I for one (and I’m sure I’m not alone) don’t blog in 3D. I do think though, that you can get a reasonable idea about someone from their blog. I’m still to meet any blog friends in real life and it will be interesting process if and when it ever happens.
As I write about blogging rather than personal matters I do not let too much of myself through as it is not relevant. Often it is not through blog posts themselves that we learn more of a person and their hearts but through other related interaction, such as comments or social networking sites. As in real life, we have a choice over how much of ourselves we display to others but often reveal more than we realize by the way we write and what we write about.