Blogging up close & personal
I have been taking part in a couple of blogging surveys recently. I have no idea who gets employed to surf through the millions of blogs & send emails to all the women/Brits/mums/whatever in the blogosphere, but that has got to be a fun job:-)
Anyway, some, like the womens blogging thing were just " answer yes or no" & send it back, but one, from Aukland Uni was a real show & tell, with open questions & follow up queries on many of the things I wrote. One of the big questions she was trying to get her head round was using blogs for personal comments, and the effect on people irl.
Every time I answered one of her questions, she would email back with another, basically asking, am i sure that blogging hasn't ruined my real life relationships. I been thinking about this, and I guess it depends on what you write & who reads it:-) I know my husband & mother-in-law (and probably my sister) read this, so I don't write deliberately inflamatory comments about them. But then again, I don't think I write deliberately inflamatory comments about anyone (not even my mother - much). If I wanted to air my deepest, darkest, middle of the night thoughts, I do not think a diary type blog is the place to do it!
Equally, I think in many ways blogging has improved many of my real life relationships. There are things you can say in writing that would be almost impossible to say to someones face. And I (or they) can respond with reasoned thought in my own time, rather than in a confrontational situation. You can ask questions that could easily be misconstrued in real life. And talk to people whose idea's are the polar opposite of your own without a) travelling across the world, and b) having a screaming match:-)
So what do you think, is blogging good or bad for rl relationships?
Anyway, some, like the womens blogging thing were just " answer yes or no" & send it back, but one, from Aukland Uni was a real show & tell, with open questions & follow up queries on many of the things I wrote. One of the big questions she was trying to get her head round was using blogs for personal comments, and the effect on people irl.
Every time I answered one of her questions, she would email back with another, basically asking, am i sure that blogging hasn't ruined my real life relationships. I been thinking about this, and I guess it depends on what you write & who reads it:-) I know my husband & mother-in-law (and probably my sister) read this, so I don't write deliberately inflamatory comments about them. But then again, I don't think I write deliberately inflamatory comments about anyone (not even my mother - much). If I wanted to air my deepest, darkest, middle of the night thoughts, I do not think a diary type blog is the place to do it!
Equally, I think in many ways blogging has improved many of my real life relationships. There are things you can say in writing that would be almost impossible to say to someones face. And I (or they) can respond with reasoned thought in my own time, rather than in a confrontational situation. You can ask questions that could easily be misconstrued in real life. And talk to people whose idea's are the polar opposite of your own without a) travelling across the world, and b) having a screaming match:-)
So what do you think, is blogging good or bad for rl relationships?
posted by Juggling Mother @ 6:49 pm
4 Comments:
At Saturday, September 16, 2006 9:57:00 am,
Emily said…
I think internet addiction is bad for relationships as it is taking time out from your real life relationships. However, I am talking about 7pm-2am addiction and throughout work. That is when it is out of control. Out of control things aren't good for relationships, particularly when the other partner isn't happy with your addiction.
Blogging is different. It is easier to control. You can chose to offload what you want to and interact to gauge opinions of others, whether the polar opposite views or the same view but different experiences. For mothers, like us, struggling to make ends meet and stay sane it is actually very supportive and interesting.
I think when it comes to other people you have to be careful when blogging. Like you, I tend not to write too much about other people's stories (ie tales from friends) unless they said I could blog about it. I try not to write anything that would offend anyone I know so I hold back on opinions on others I know because I know they read the blog. The only exception has been one post about my dad and working for him and what happened.
The same goes with other blogger etiquette. I would always ask a blogger if I could link to their site and if I can use any of their stuff to link to (unless I "know" them quite well and know they wouldn't mind). I would also never publish anyone's emails to me unless they said that was ok.
I think blogging is a great way of sharing experiences across a wide variety of people. I think it is possibly the most positive experience I've had with the internet yet.
At Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:29:00 am,
craziequeen said…
I don't think it has hurt our relationship, do you?
[big grin]
cq
At Saturday, September 16, 2006 6:14:00 pm,
Paste said…
My wife thinks its definitely for saddo's only!
At Monday, September 18, 2006 9:39:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
I think blogging is beneficial to rl relationships. You learn that you are not the only crazy person on this earth, therefore, you feel better about yourself, which thusly, helps you to cope with the other crazies in your rl. [grin]
Aw shucks, I dunno. Blogging hasn't hurt my rl relationships. If anything, it has given me more to converse about. It has, however, increased my waist size just a bit. That's so not a fair trade-off.
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