Blog Convert

Okay. People change. I wrote this two years ago:

The blog has become the preferred media for people crippled with this exceedingly popular form of egomania: self-exposure. Their satisfaction is in knowing they are interesting and important, because to the person reading their diary, they are. Sometimes they write in private blogs available only to friends and quasi-friends. Often, though, they write to a world of Gwendolyns [some nosey person] that take interest in the boring, or else hyperbolized exploits of strangers. Some of these Gwendolyns, of course, are really named Bob and are 52 years old. It is okay if bloggers pour their hearts out to Bob. They mustn’t, though, pour out mine. Even as it relates to the blogger, Bob does not need to know with whom I am fighting, with whom I had a date, or with whom I am friendly. And, as one should not write of these things explicitly, one should not write of these things vaguely either. After all, the veiled mention of “a certain somebody” is particularly sheer among friends.

As I write this, I am playing to that closeted whim within me that I might tell people what I think and that they would care. Really, it is normal (as I am very normal and by extension, so are my actions). One must use a barometer, however, in determining what to include in a public or private blog entry. He or she must ask: is this something that harms me, harms others, or might be of harm in the future? So long as one is comfortable expressing a facet of their emotional self that doesn’t portray others negatively, and that doesn’t seem especially damaging to one’s future, then he is entitled to publish his life’s story for all I care. Good luck to him in finding material, and may its reception be warm.

And, in case 52-year-old Bob is watching, bloggers need not divulge addresses or telephone numbers.

And now here I am, starting a blog. Here goes nothing.