After reading Sumiko Tan's piece in the newspaper about Facebook. it really set me thinking about my personal computer life.
Email and MSN are most certainly not contrabands, but blogs and Facebook? I don't have a Facebook account and never will but I have this blog, goodness knows what for.
When I started my blog, I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to customize it beautifully with pretty blogskins and adding widgets and music to it. Also, it was popular and naturally, I wanted to try it out for myself. Now, it has evolved into what you are seeing today.
But according to Sumiko Tan, we should value our private space, which is why she never would join Facebook. I realised then that my blog is sharing with people my daily life and its happenings. That most certainly isn't valuing my own private space, is it? Just look at the number of links on my blog. Even good students keep blogs and I thought, surely there's nothing wrong with having a blog, is there?
Of course, there are downfalls to keeping a blog. You spend precious time blogging and viewing other people's blogs, just to find out what they've been up to. You also have to rack your brains to try to come up with an interesting topic to blog about. Otherwise, your blog could well be on its way to being awarded the title of "Most Boring Blog". If you do not update for a period of time, you blog is branded as "dead" and occasionally, you will be pestered by your friends to "just write something".
To me, the notion of customizing a blog is appealing and made me want to have one in the first place. But surely you could do the same thing with a normal notebook which you can grandly refer to as a "diary"? Except, you'll have no widgets or music. Which was what turned me off the idea. But the fact that almost anyone can view your blog is not a good thing. You can't write freely about your likes and dislikes for fear if offending someone. I've read blogs in which people try to make themselves seem smarter, more fluent, sportier, cooler and more popular than they really are.
And by reading other people's blogs, you're actually feeding your voyeuristic spirit. Same goes for Facebook. And other social networking sites. Its not that its wrong to have Facebook accounts but maybe, its a little weird to display your personal life in such a way.
Ultimately, its up to you what you wish and do not wish to do on the Internet. After all, isn't life all about choices?
p.s. I'm currently in a dilemma as to whether I should continue blogging or not.
(back to the top.)
Facebook? Blogs?
Sunday, April 19, 2009