Blogging has its pros and cons. The pros: people comment on your posts – and you get to meet people over the internet. Blogging helps me blow off steam sometimes, and its nice having commenters sympathize and empathize. The cons: the offline world can catch up to the online world.
One of the primary motivations behind my move from my previous blog, to the blog I’m currently using now, is privacy. On my old blog, I put in a lot of information about myself: my name (not my whole name), where I lived (city, country only – not address), and at some point, I even mentioned the school I attended (indirectly). Having moved around a lot, I even disclosed which cities I lived and when I lived there. Not that this is bad – it’s not like people can suddenly steal my identity based on an online blog. I didn’t reveal too much about my personal life in the other blog, but the info that I did provide allowed my blog to be exposed to the offline world, somewhat.
Last year, someone I knew bumped into my blog. If you read my blog last year, you might remember (I think I put a password on the affected post though). How did they bump into my blog. He typed my name, the name of my school, and the word “blog” on Google, and that’s how he got to me. At first I was like, oh cool I can be searched on Google. But then he discovered a post on my old blog that concerned him, and didn’t exactly portray him in the best light (what can I say? he deserved it). And then he goes on bitching away for a few days at school. Not that people at school cared – rumors are common in my school, but generally, people are more apathetic. No one cares. But still – its a violation of privacy.
So I’ve decided to be a bit more guarded about privacy over the internet. Particularly now, during the App season. Yeah, I do put in a lot of personal stuff on this blog, but you haven’t seen me putting in my name, home address, phone number, and so on, do you? Over the last few months, blogging has served as a sort of “therapy” for me. I hate having my online monologue/therapy sessions being ruined by the offline world.
Have you ever had “unpleasant” blogging experiences?
Posted by bukol 
