I know this is an old topic…
…but after receiving an anonymous blog comment on my last entry, I felt like it should be addressed here, because no blog is complete without this sort of entry.
It should be apparent that I withhold personal details of my life from this blog. There is a lot more to many of the personal stories I write about than what I let on, for my own privacy and that of the people involved. I find people who assume that a single post includes all of the dirty details to be incredibly close-minded. It should go without saying things are left out. You, anonymous poster, do not know the full story, and frankly, I don’t care to tell you. It’s none of your business.
People who assume they know everything there is to know about a person because of a few blog entries or even a thorough perusal of a website need a head examination. What we as bloggers and webmasters display on our site is a very watered down version of ourselves (at least, for the most part). There are plenty of bloggers who don’t show pictures of themselves, give their real names, give the names of their fellows, talk about their jobs/schooling and are completely vague about the life they lead. This should point to the glaringly obvious point that people on the internet are not who they are on their website. That is to say, who they display is not their whole self. It’s very presumptuous for a reader to assume they understand all circumstances of a post or a page. If I’m ever leaving a comment, I am sure to preface it with the knowledge that I am going off of the incomplete information given because there are obviously more intricate dynamics going on than what’s displayed.
I am not my blogging persona, and nor am I my website. I am all of the things you see, but I am also so much more. Assuming I’m nothing more than the words on your screen is ignorant at best and a bit hurtful (on my part) at worst. Nobody is one-dimensional. Don’t treat people that way. Give them the benefit of the doubt that there’s more to the story than what you see before jumping down their throats.
Filed under: Internet, Rants | 2 Comments
gd(ORG): BLOG!
The name is Stephanie, and boy do I like to ramble.
Bits of info for the knowing:
19. Psychology major. Geek. Artist. Writer. Photographer. Clemson University. Baltimore, hon. Asheville. Yankee stuck in the south.
You can put the pieces together, I'm sure.
Stephanie Burns © 2008. No stealing, please.
Though, I've no idea why you'd even want to...
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I don’t know what was said in the anonymous comment that sparked this post, but I think I finally realized why this type of post bugs me a bit. So let me try to respectfully add on to this caveat:
People have layers.
I just remembered that phrase, and it represents this perfectly. Your post tries to emphasize the difference between online and offline, further dividing these two places and making the border harder to cross. However, this is a problem both online and offline. You NEVER really know a person, especially as a person keep changing throughout their lifetime. There are always things they aren’t telling you, whether online or offline. So you have this problem both online and offline, and sometimes especially online where people try to hide identifying details from crazy people (who are a little easier to avoid offline).
I hope you don’t mind my trying to combine what you said with people in general. I just hate distancing online and offline: it’s so hard to try to reach out to people through the internet and make friends if that distance is big. And I like making friends, be it offline or on. :)
ZOMG U R SO GAY!
Oh wait, I filled in my name. Don’t think it’s quite the same, huh.