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I never cease to be amazed at the raw honesty and the intimate subjects people write about in their blogs.
During my 9 months in the blogosphere I have read some incredibly personal and heartfelt posts about postnatal depression, eating disorders, mental illness and even attempted suicide.
Conversely I have also read some of the funniest, laugh-out-loud posts about ladies private parts, vibrators, and spontaneous sex in the kitchen!
Yet, in contrast there are many bloggers who write under a pseudonym or who adopt false names or nicknames for their children. In some areas there is complete freedom of expression, in others there is caution and restraint.
Which got me wondering - what are my blogging taboos? It's easy to get carried away, when you feel you are amongst a community of supportive friends, to spill your guts, only to regret it later. And the more I thought about it, I realised my benchmark for the appropriateness of a subject is:
a) would I mind if my mum read it and/or
b) would I want the other mums at the school to read it?
I'm happy to use my children's names and publish their photos on my blog. I have written about giving birth and my increasing weight. I have admitted my depression and, just recently, opened up about the friend I cannot forgive. But that has only scratched the surface of who I am.
Like many people, I have a deep desire to be understood and accepted for who I am, warts and all. But would I tell you everything there is to know? I know I wouldn't - and I couldn't.
Maybe I'm a coward. I know that the more personal the writing, the greater is its power to move and to help others who may be suffering in silence. But in the same way I wouldn't bear my private parts on national TV, I'm not sure I could completely bear my soul on my blog. I'd be too worried you wouldn't like me or would judge me if I did.
Do you have a blogging taboo? Are there subjects you would never write about? Or are you happy to bear your soul to the blogging community?
Like many people, I have a deep desire to be understood and accepted for who I am, warts and all. But would I tell you everything there is to know? I know I wouldn't - and I couldn't.
Maybe I'm a coward. I know that the more personal the writing, the greater is its power to move and to help others who may be suffering in silence. But in the same way I wouldn't bear my private parts on national TV, I'm not sure I could completely bear my soul on my blog. I'd be too worried you wouldn't like me or would judge me if I did.
Do you have a blogging taboo? Are there subjects you would never write about? Or are you happy to bear your soul to the blogging community?
1 comments:
I think everyone has a taboo, certainly anominity helps you go maybe further than you would if your family read your blog but everyone has a line.
I write my blog as though I were chatting to friends so many subjects are fine however, if it's a really personal thing then it won't get talked about because that's how I am in real life.
I am on the verge of losing my anonymous status which is freaking me out a little and definitely changing the subjects I feel I can write about. Which is a shame and probably tomorrows blog post!
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