RSSThe Nature of Blogging, II
June 13th, 2006 | View Comments
So I’ve been thinking some more about the nature of blogging. The common analogy is that a blog is like someone’s home, and reading a blog is like being a guest in someone’s home and thus you should behave accordingly, meaning that anything the blog author wants to say is sacrosanct, and if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all.
I think the analogy is pretty much a complete failure.
First of all, while it would be unbelievably rude for me to walk into someone’s home and say, insult the decor, it does not follow that I should only express positive opinions about the decor.
A homeowner should make his or her guests feel welcome and comfortable, and if that strobe light is giving me a headache, I am well within the bounds of decorum to ask my host to turn it off.
Thus, while it is rude to leave a vitriolic comment on someone’s blog, it does not follow that it is rude to leave anything but a positive comment.
Second of all, everyone always seems to miss the giant glaring flaw with the entire house analogy, which is that you would not be randomly walking into someone’s home the way you randomly surf onto blogs. Homes have locks and keys and curtains.
Unless you live in a glass house, people cannot just drop in and see what’s going on. Anyone who wants to enter your home either needs an invitation or the means to break in. Blogs are, for the most part, public. Anybody who happens to be in the virtual neighborhood can see what’s going on in it. In that sense, a blog is much more like the front lawn of a house, or the sidewalk.
This analogy also has its flaws, but I think it gets the critical comparison correct.
People often say, “It’s my blog, I can write whatever I want.” And while that is technically true, it does not imply that you can expect your readers to nod and smile at everything you say. When you write in your blog, you are leaving the privacy of your house and going out into public view. You can choose to do so immaculately dressed and coiffed, or wearing a bathrobe and pajamas, or wearing nothing at all if you choose. It’s your property, your front lawn, you technically can do whatever you want.
But in one case, you’re engaging in private nudity, and your neighbors probably won’t even know you’re doing it. In the other case, you’re engaging in public nudity and your neightbors will most definitely know you’re doing it. They will talk, and probably judge.
At that point, you have three options. 1) To apologize, go back inside, get dressed, and try to be more discreet in the future, 2) build a fence around your property so your neighbors can no longer see in, or 3) grow a thicker skin (no pun intended) and keep doing it anyways. Demanding that all your neighbors simply avert their gaze or move to a different neighborhood if they don’t like it is not really a viable option.
Even if you do nothing extraordinary, people still won’t treat your front lawn as sacred ground the way they may treat the inside of your house. Pranksters will come steal your lawn ornaments and toilet-paper your trees. Dog owners will leave a giant stinking pile of dog poo in a corner. Teenaged guys will leave you presents of used condoms near the driveway.
A blog is the same way. Even if the content is utterly milquetoast, spammers will come and spew junk and the occasional whackjob will pause to wax eloquent about his penis.
Posting a strong opinion or personal details on your blog is like walking around your front yard nude. People will see, and people will talk. If people react negatively, you have three options. 1) Apologize, and temper or remove whatever got people all riled up, 2) restrict commenting or password-protect your blog, or 3) grow a thicker skin.
While it is perfectly within your rights to demand that people agree or stop reading, it is both imperious and completely unenforceable unless you resort to IP banning everyone who snipes at you, and even that is an imperfect solution. To whine and rail about people not treating you with kid gloves on your blog is just drama queen-y. It’s available for everyone to see and judge.
If it bothers you so much, then stop making it available for everyone to see and judge. It’s that simple.
Yvonne posted this on June 13th, 2006 @ 5:41am in Blogging | Permalink to "The Nature of Blogging, II"
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