Public and Private
I had a blog before this one. Started when the kids were small, when personal blogs were more of a thing; I gradually posted less as the kids got older, and I went back and forth over privacy issues. Earlier this year, I finally decided there were too many posts to go through and individually make posts private, so I made the whole blog private and started this one. I still hadn’t decided exactly what would fill this space, and I probably haven’t yet landed on an answer to that question. The question came up again for me today as I read a post: Antivirals on the Convivial Society, discussing the blurring between the private and public and the importance of refusing to turn over all experience to the attention economy. I’m not a big social media user, but I’m not immune to its corrupting effects.
it is impossible to overstate the degree to which the petty, narcissistic type is naturally equipped to command the heights of the attention economy. Or, lest we be tempted to take comfort in that observation, the degree to which the platform’s dynamics can bend any of us toward petty narcissism and shamelessness. I certainly don’t think I’m immune to the effect.
Antivirals – L. M. Sacasas
So, while my social media use tends towards 3-4 posts a year, I still feel the need to monitor myself both on social media and in this space to make sure I’m not being “bent grotesquely out of shape.’
6 Comments
Suzanne
Ah yes, petty narcissist should probably be the title of my blog! It is fun to have a space that is all about oneself, but I see your point. (I also think — in a totally unbiased way, haha — that blogs are less likely to bend a person out of shape than something like Twitter, or even instagram. But who knows. Maybe it’s a matter of popularity, and the more followers, the more attention, the easier it is to lose yourself? I don’t know.
NGS
I think of blogs the way historians think of personal diaries. There is nothing more interesting to me than the diary of a servant from the Victorian era or a housewife in colonial America. They’re voices that don’t get a lot of recognition in your average history book, but show a different side to history than the great man/war-centered history that I was frequently sold in school. Someday our personal blogs, with their details about our daily lives, regardless of how navel-gazing or ridiculous we find them right now, will be historical artifacts of importance. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when I’m writing endlessly about my dog AGAIN.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I agree. When I started my corona diaries I had exactly the historic documentation in mind. That may have been the narcistic streak talking because who will ever come across my babbling…
Tobia | craftaliciousme
This is a constant struggle for me. As a social media manager I do spend much more time on the platforms than I would on a personal level. And that often blurs the lines. i belivee I am handling well but there are always times I am not. I try to not talk about too private things online – my latest post being a big exception. But then I am not having a big following. I would probably not say certain things knowing hundreds and tousands would read it.
So do you think we are all publishing online for we (secretly) nned the attention?
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San
This is why I’ve been keeping a personal blog all these years – because I feel like it’s my space and I can do what I want with it. People can visit, or not.
I feel less pressure to “measure up” than on other social media platforms where it’s all about click-baits (I mean what is it with Reels, Tiktok, Stories in 15 seconds snippets?? What happened to IG being a “photo platform”? Why is long text not “with the times” anymore?
I agree with NGS and Tobia – blogs are, in a way, historical documents created in real time. Not necessary always “life changing”, but witness of different times.