I got an e-mail recently that made me give a lot of thought to why I blog, what I blog about and the potential ramifications of blogging. We have all heard stories about the flight attendant who posted pictures of herself in her airline uniform on her blog, who was then fired. On the other end of the spectrum, you may have heard or kept up with the now defunct LANL blog (in my links to the left), which became a mainstay and often a voice of discontent among the famous national lab written publicly by a staff member. And then the personal aspect… there are just those times when you wonder could this person I have whined about wander over and find my blog? That has happened with some people I know both in real life and in my blogosphere. That’s one of those “oh shit” moments. Yeah, we all try to be perfect, but plain truth there are people we adore (and some we don’t) who occasionally annoy us and we move past it by whining about it. Once it is off your chest, phew! Relief! And you can go back to being friends (or not as the case may be) with the person again.
The e-mail I received was an invitation by a newspaper reporter to be interviewed for a story on "cool" bloggers in my area. (I had to throw the "cool" in there... it has been years since I have been termed "cool".) The link to my blog was passed on to her from a friend of mine. For about 30 seconds I was so flattered! Me, interviewed, about something I love to do? How fun!
Then at 31 seconds the “what ifs” set in. Anonymity, this is one reason I blog. Many of my readers are friends and family and know exactly who I am, where I live and plenty of details about my life (like who I dated my junior year in high school… yeah big mistake there!). So for that group of people, my moniker means nothing. However, for others, my moniker is my identity, with no connection to the small city where I reside. What this article would do in essence is serve up my name likely with my moniker, maybe with my URL and top it off with my location and served on a platter to my community. Even lacking the moniker and the URL, anyone reading the article could have googled my real name and found my blog in two clicks. No joke.
Paranoia? Here is my blog, with pictures of my son, his name (because I lack creativity in assigning titles and can’t come up with a good unique moniker for him) and add to that my full name (hence his last name) and our town? The fact that he is in a Montessori school (which I have stated a number of times) makes him frighteningly easy to locate. Reason #1, safety.
Reason #2 is that I am apparently just a bitch. I whine about people. I complain about my former post-doc mentor, I whine about coworkers, my admin (just recently). I laugh about people Miss Pink Post-Doc (who I really am growing to like even though her clothes just really freak me out), my friend and coworker C liking her romance novels… I come here and get it out of my system. Well for the most part, what’s left usually goes in e-mails to Soil Micro Mom and Vargas Girl. Yes, I am a bitch, I freely admit that here. But to my coworkers, my managers, my admin, C? Nope, I am that sweet woman that everyone enjoys working with and never says a bad word about anyone or anything. The person they can come into my office and confide in. I can’t blow my cover.
Reason #3… “Hello, media relations? Yes, I am a staff member here and my name is going to be in the local newspaper as a blogger, OK? Just thought I would let you know as required by that difficult to navigate system we all pledge allegiance to as employees.” Yeah, nuff said. I like my job (most of the time).
While the lure of the spotlight was appealing and flattering I put these reasons together and issued a polite decline to the reporter. She is correct in stating that any of these people cited herein could find this blog. I know they could, very easily. But then THEY would be looking for it and in my own mind responsible for what they stumbled across. As opposed to having the evidence presented in front of them in the local paper where curiosity would most certainly be sparked (I know mine would!). I consider myself an average person and I don’t Google my coworkers (exception, Google Scholar for publications). I don’t think I give people a reason to go search me out online. But it is a chance I take coming here and blogging. A chance that for now, I will accept.
Now the question is how drastically will this affect the way I blog? Had I started blogging differently (not being petty, not whining occasionally about work, and staying totally anonymous) way back in November of 2004... my answer would have likely been different. Lessons learned.
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