something interesting...
Something interesting went on this weekend out at the conference at Harvard. I have a much better sense of the world...and a sense like I'm catching up on things I've missed. I ran into some of the most interesting people--a number of people working either with a media outlet or with a group producing various forms of what, for lack of a better term, is called "citizen media." And I can see better some of the bridges that need to be built...
Several of the folks I talked with, who have worked with blogs, have their own blogs, and such, were, as I was, surprised at how much the journalists don't know about blogging. It was a bit disturbing, to say the least. Here are folks who are worried about bloggers, who were throwing around the term "those bloggers," and I wondered exactly who they were talking about.
I was actually able to civilly approach a journalist from Canada and ask him what he meant by "those bloggers." the answer was interesting...
I'm beginning to think, too, that it may be time to take this blog down. I realized talking to so many different people that I am really on to something, and that my perspectives on what's going on with blogging are very much in tune with what so many folks are thinking...
And I find myself in the same dilemma as Heather was a few months ago--how much of myself should I keep exposed. could it hurt me professionally? Could it cause people to not take me as seriously as I believe I am?
Perhaps the experiement this blog was meant to be--memoir-style writing to connect with others--is actually over. Perhaps there's another place that I'm meant to be, where I need to not be such a loudmouth and not talk about things that are amazingly personal.
It's hard to know what willl hurt and what will help. Hard to know sometimes what's appropriate and what isn't in a world of Girls Gone Wild and a 24/7 culture that seems to reward people who expose a great deal of themselves...
Those rewards might actually be won only thru an awful game of Literary Russian Roulette....
And then it becomes a question of what kind of writing do I want to do. I have to pick a path. I have to figure out whether I'm going to go literary or journalistic. At this point, it's hard to not be one or the other--I don't have the clout in the world to be both. As I see it, you can start as a journo and then write about your life. Or you can be a writer of fiction and turn into a journo.
Then I guess I'm at a crossroads. I feel like it's not enough to be gifted and smart, that I have to pick a place where I want to be, and I have to shut up about things about certain aspects of my life because I simply don't have the status for those things *not* to hurt me professionally.
I worry...a lot...about this...worry if I'm going to be ghettoized or stigmatized in some way...that my transparent thrashings around with identity and blogging won't be appreciated...that I appear as too flakey...which, when it comes down to it, I'm not. I'm passionate (yes) and sometimes overly-expressive (I blame my Italian working class nature for that) but I'm most definitely not a flake.
Just talk to me a bit and you'll figure it out.
Okay, enough. I'm going to get some lunch, breathe it through, try to get some feedback on this, and think about making a decison.
I don't like decisions. Like marriage, they seem too final, and too limiting....
Several of the folks I talked with, who have worked with blogs, have their own blogs, and such, were, as I was, surprised at how much the journalists don't know about blogging. It was a bit disturbing, to say the least. Here are folks who are worried about bloggers, who were throwing around the term "those bloggers," and I wondered exactly who they were talking about.
I was actually able to civilly approach a journalist from Canada and ask him what he meant by "those bloggers." the answer was interesting...
I'm beginning to think, too, that it may be time to take this blog down. I realized talking to so many different people that I am really on to something, and that my perspectives on what's going on with blogging are very much in tune with what so many folks are thinking...
And I find myself in the same dilemma as Heather was a few months ago--how much of myself should I keep exposed. could it hurt me professionally? Could it cause people to not take me as seriously as I believe I am?
Perhaps the experiement this blog was meant to be--memoir-style writing to connect with others--is actually over. Perhaps there's another place that I'm meant to be, where I need to not be such a loudmouth and not talk about things that are amazingly personal.
It's hard to know what willl hurt and what will help. Hard to know sometimes what's appropriate and what isn't in a world of Girls Gone Wild and a 24/7 culture that seems to reward people who expose a great deal of themselves...
Those rewards might actually be won only thru an awful game of Literary Russian Roulette....
And then it becomes a question of what kind of writing do I want to do. I have to pick a path. I have to figure out whether I'm going to go literary or journalistic. At this point, it's hard to not be one or the other--I don't have the clout in the world to be both. As I see it, you can start as a journo and then write about your life. Or you can be a writer of fiction and turn into a journo.
Then I guess I'm at a crossroads. I feel like it's not enough to be gifted and smart, that I have to pick a place where I want to be, and I have to shut up about things about certain aspects of my life because I simply don't have the status for those things *not* to hurt me professionally.
I worry...a lot...about this...worry if I'm going to be ghettoized or stigmatized in some way...that my transparent thrashings around with identity and blogging won't be appreciated...that I appear as too flakey...which, when it comes down to it, I'm not. I'm passionate (yes) and sometimes overly-expressive (I blame my Italian working class nature for that) but I'm most definitely not a flake.
Just talk to me a bit and you'll figure it out.
Okay, enough. I'm going to get some lunch, breathe it through, try to get some feedback on this, and think about making a decison.
I don't like decisions. Like marriage, they seem too final, and too limiting....
posted by Tish Grier at 1:32 PM
7 Comments:
I think a lot of us started weblogs because we felt like we had no voice elsewhere. If you feel like have a voice in the world, then maybe you don't need this blog anymore.
I would miss it though...
Snarkaholic doesn't work for me because I don't care about politics. If LaHaSaD went offline, your voice would be silent to me.
That would stink...
Take one really personal post and try and turn it into a fictional scene.
Bet you'd end up with a novel, and I bet I'd buy it.
i've been wondering if there's a way to merge both blogs--it feels kind of like trying to pull together a split-personality....and I do fear losing readership either place (well, fear's too strong a word--more like concern.)
and I've been thinking of re-writing things into something of a roman a clef and seeing how it would work. And now I know that somebody will read it!
Tish: I've often wondered why you've chosen to connect this blog (love hope sex dreams) and snarkaholic.
From my perspective, the first is a personal blog, and the later is a professional blog. Using the same image (photo), and then also connecting them via links is.... well.... setting yourself up for unwanted exposure.
If you want my opinion, I say: separate the two. That is, unless you have a really good reason to keep them linked.
I don't agree with shamash. I believe we should be whole people. Linking your two blogs makes you more REAL. You care about politics and you have a rich personal life.
I think the blogs should be compartmentalized, though. I am a TRUE believer of this. All my weight issue stuff goes into Starling Fitness. All my gadget coveting goes into The Gadgets Page. All my scholarly thoughts land up in The Quotations Weblog. All my travels end up in Starling Travel. Everything else goes to Pick Me!
When something overwhelms Pick Me!, like crocheting, for example, I consider starting a new blog. That way the people who truly love crochet can read to their heart's content, but I don't bore my personal blog readers with it.
Tish, I think you're doing a great job of revealing enough to be human and keeping enough personal. Don't make any decisions based on fear.
I guess the question for me is does this blog fill a need for you? If it does, then Shamash gives good advice. Continue it, but delink it from the other so that you feel comfortable exploring both sides of yourself. Or if you think that search engines will continue to link the two, start a new personal blog with a different name.
If you no longer feel compelled to write here, then maybe it is time to let it go. If it's not satisfying to you anymore, then why bother? Your only obligation is to yourself.
Thanks so much for all your input on this difficult decision!
I think I do indeed have to think more about whether or not this blog serves my needs. I do *so* enjoy writing about sex, and love, and my dreams and things I hope for myself. These are very, very human desires, and I think there are far too few Women of a Certain Age who are human in a certain way on the Internet (oh, I *know* that makes me sound like I have a *huge* ego, but that's really not the case. Seriously, how many single, 45 year old late bloomers with crazy sex lives are there on the Internet?? Esp. the latter part. Unless you happen to be Kim Cattrall.)
And there are indeed two spheres of thought on whether or not it's helpful or hurtful. I know that it was helpful in one respect, but also know it can hurt, too....mostly, I think, because businesspeople just aren't ready for too much revelation. (Heck, as I learned at the conference I just got back from, East Coast isn't ready for a lot stuff that goes on in blogging.)
So, what to do, what to do?
I would actually like to put myself in one place, on one blog. Maybe keep an anonymous blog of Highly Personal stuff (and if you always read me, I'll let you know where I go) And keep the business and superficially personal stuff on the same blog.
It's strange how I don't think men have this same problem....or at least don't care about it if they do. Even stranger is how those who have Power--Economic Power--have far more freedom to expose themselves, their lives, and their thoughts, without any worries that doing so could damage their professional lives.
It's a strange tyrrany--that tyrrany that forces some of us of a socio economic background into an emotional straightjacket to fit in, and allows the weathly and established (powerful) the luxury of over-exposure if they so choose to do so.
Something ain't right about that.
And I don't like having to admit that I am, to a greater or lesser degree, still working my way furiously *into* some kind of career. I'm not there yet though...
I still don't know the right decision...but I'll figure it out.
Post a Comment
<< Home