google is god reprised
For some reason, this article entitled “Blogs: Hanging dirty laundry on-line” makes me think of a recently circulating meme “Google is God.” Link from littleyellowdifferent. Maybe it’s the whole confessional aspect of it. Google as priest.
There is something cathartic about blogging, but there is something disturbing about people suddenly accosting you with things you have blogged. (I’m sure you know what I mean, R. Heh. They aren’t kidding about how blogs sometimes degenerate into private messages to people….)
Then there is the anonymity factor. In some professions, this is actually crucial. For example, in medicine, you can’t really blog about your patients, not without making yourself anonymous. (Because, believe me, if a patient looked at your blog and found out you were spewing their personal details throughout the net, it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t use their actual names.) Or, as another example, this soldier who is stranded in Iraq—it might be very detrimental for him to have his identity exposed.
The other thing is that, well, the better you know your audience, the less cavalier you are about spewing certain thoughts. I mean, if I knew that a girl I liked was reading this, you could be sure I would elide all mention of my thoughts about her.
So. The private journal is definitely not obsolete.
That’s all I have to say for now.