The sometimes flawed art of blogging
There were many times during my rather short career as a blogger that I encountered the words, ”...stopped speaking to me because of something I wrote on this blog…” And while there are some bloggers that set out to hurt and offend people, most of ours are “kind blogs”, as Karen calls it, who are blogging to share our lives, to make friends, to learn, to teach, to be inspired, to be creative.
In the words of the ever wise Suroor, “you can only give examples of family and family should have enough trust in you to understand that you are not ridiculing them”... And it is true, it is something that all of us, as bloggers, do… from the very famous, to the not so famous… like me…
In some ways our regular readers know us better than the people in our real lives, they can pick up our mood, our tone, the real meaning of our words. And sometimes when family or friends see an unexpected reference to themselves in our articles, they can no longer think objectively of our thoughts and words, it becomes less about us, and more about them.
As a blogger, we try to tell our story in an interesting way, sometimes humorous, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes with love, it’s just our way… and sometimes to get the whole picture, it is necessary to read more than just one article.
A tip to fellow bloggers… people will still be offended by your articles and/or comments despite your best efforts, so just try your best to let them know that you had no malice in your heart and any offense was not your intent. And also keep in mind that we, as bloggers, are fairly comfortable talking about ourselves, our lives, and our struggles in a public forum, but this is not the case for everyone.
This is one of the fine lines of blogging I guess, how much is too much, what is too personal, I mean, sometimes things that are totally benign in our view, can be seen as nothing short of vile by someone else…
But to stop blogging, I think, would be a shame, because in less than a year, I have gained so many friends, learned so much, been inspired by so many fellow bloggers, saved my sanity as a stay at home mom, felt love, shared love, and just gained so much more than I ever imagined.
