I pondered blogging for months before deciding to join the Blogosphere. Although I consider myself fluent in the internet and hardly remember how to dial a telephone for pizza delivery, I have shied away from using the internet to voice my point of view beyond the occasional letter to the editor.
Why the hesitation?
1) Privacy. There are tools that allow users to limit who can view their blog but that idea has never appealed to me. Why not just send a mass e-mail to your friends and family? It's not as pretty but then you save them a step of having to go to your page.
Creating a open-to-all blog has its problems. There is already a lot of information about me available publicly, so I'm hesitant to add more. Much to the consternation of some friends, I don't use social networking sites. To be honest, I'm afraid to commit to the work involved in upkeep with the hot new song or snapshots recently taken. My page would be plain and factual and, honestly, who needs more of that on the web? Joking aside, I like my privacy--it gives me a space to feel comfortable and secure--and I don't want to give it up too willingly.
2.) Intellectual Property. I am by nature a writer. Someday I intend to publish. Although I am sharing them now, I consider my thoughts and writing in this blog to be intellectual property to which I maintain the rights.
3.) Censorship. In my everyday speech, I don't censor myself much and feel comfortable talking about things that others consider T.M.I. However, I generally have the sensibility not say things that would make the conversation uncomfortable to the point of offending the person I am speaking with. This means I will choose to write as if my boss would read it and not just my best friend.
4) "Don't Send that E-mail!" Maturing at a time when e-mail became available literally at my fingertips, I've learned the hard way the importance of sometimes letting an e-mail sit for a while and re-reading it later before deciding to send it. It's easy to become emboldened by the one-way conversation and say things that are hurtful and untrue. When the only way to do this was to write a letter, there was a natural passing of time that occurred as the letter was prepared to be sent but the click of mouse has erased that time and replaced prudence with convenience.
Although I can delete a post after I've made it, I still want to be aware of what I am writing and make sure it represents how I truly feel. Plus, once it's been posted it's a bit like a judge asking the jury to "disregard that statement" after an zealous attorney has stepped out of line. Everyone heard it and few people have the ability or the problem of just erasing things from the memory.
5) Commitment. It's annoying to me to check a blog awaiting news of the next adventure or word only to find nothing has been posted. I assume that reading my blog won't be a waste of time but checking to see if something new has posted when it hasn't sure as heck would be. I don't want to inflict that kind of annoyance on people.
