We Blog Therefore We Are

We blog therefore we are!

The importance of thinking before posting
 
Remember that shabby diary you used to stash in your underwear drawer years ago? You know the one - filled with confessions of lust for Marcus in your English class, then Scotty from Biology and Leonardo Di Caprio, naturally! Now imagine the contents published online for all to see. Makes you cringe more than spotting a grown man wearing socks and sandals doesn’t it? Funnily enough though, these days it seems to be the norm. Rather than bury their most intimate thoughts in an underwear drawer, many moody teenagers choose to blog publicly about them instead. And they might just be on to something.
 
“Blogging is a great way for people to show off and hone their skills, express themselves, and share information,” says Dr Alice Boyes, a clinical psychologist and former psychology lecturer at the University of Sussex, who now runs a private practice in Christchurch. A blogger herself, Dr Boyes believes there is therapeutic value in opening up online. As the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved, and blogging is doing just that for many people the world over. A Kiwi woman who can vouch for this is Jane Yee.
 
Currently the Promotions Manager for Universal Music, Jane is also a blogger, and an award-winning one at that. Her blog, The Girls’ Guide, hosted by Stuff.co.nz, won the Best Blog title at the 2011 Canon Media Awards after four years of writing for the news site.
 
“I was going through a bit of a rough time,” Jane says of the period when Stuff approached her. “I was looking for a distraction ... it felt very much like it was meant to be.” Little did Jane know that the project would lead to her rough time becoming very public.
 
With a broadcasting background Jane is no stranger to the spotlight. You might remember her from her days as a presenter for Music TV channel C4 (now FOUR). The pint-sized host has also fronted an advertising campaign for youth depression website thelowdown.co.nz. As someone who has battled with depression Jane was an ideal candidate, yet she admits that “People don't really know when someone fronts something like that how genuinely tied to the cause they are”. Cue the ‘depression entry’ as Jane refers to it; a blog post that generated one of the biggest responses she had ever had with The Girls’ Guide.  
 
“It felt like a coming-out on the blog because I was brutally honest about how badly it [depression] had affected me ... pushing that publish button was scary,” Jane admits. Though she has no regrets she’s pleased she took that step.

“A huge number of people said they understood or that it helped them in some way. I know it’s really cheesy and clichéd, but if it made a difference to someone or helped someone then it was definitely worth putting myself out there for," says Jane. She, like Dr Boyes, acknowledges the therapeutic potential of blogging, and describes the process as being 'cathartic'.
 
Yet despite the personal satisfaction and success that blogging has provided, Jane admits that there are definite risks to baring all on the worldwide web.
“You need to make sure that whatever you put up [online] is something that in 20 years time you're not going to regret. I also think it's important, generally speaking as human beings, to just keep some stuff for you and your family and friends.”
Dr Boyes agrees, “Research shows that people tend to feel more dis-inhibited communicating online, meaning they may post things they later regret,” she says.
 
One woman who knows only too well the consequences of revealing too much online is Heather B. Armstrong. In 2002, comments regarding co-workers on her personal website Dooce.com cost Heather her job. Her online faux pas even created a new word  ‘Dooced.’ Urbandictionary.com defines the term as ‘to be fired from your job because of the contents of your weblog.’
 
“Be ye not so stupid”, Heather tells readers on her website. “Never write about work on the internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that you are writing about work on the internet.”
 
Fortunately for Heather, she only has herself to answer to these days. Today, Dooce.com is one of the most read blogs in the world. Forbes has named Heather one of the 'most influential women in media', the New York Times dubbed her 'Queen of the Mommy Bloggers' and she has more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter. It's fair to say that Heather's site is quite popular. 
 
“What do I do? Why, I just sit in my pajamas all day long writing about my feelings!” Heather jokes. To be fair, her description isn't that far from the truth. Together with her husband, Jon (who was able to quit his job in 2005 due to advertising sales on the site) Heather works full-time running Dooce.com from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 
Often considered the poster girl for professional blogging, Heather leads a seemingly ideal existence complemented by a healthy income, although life hasn't always dealt her a winning hand. In 2004, Heather suffered severe postpartum depression following the birth of her first child. She was admitted to a psychiatric ward. Heather blogged throughout her time there and during visiting hours passed notes to her husband who then typed them up on the site. Her efforts were rewarded. Visitors to Dooce.com quadrupled by the time Heather checked out of hospital.
 
The case of Dooce.com demonstrates how the success of a professional blogger can rely on being open with readers. To many it may seem bizarre sharing the most personal of situations with complete strangers, but as with Jane Yee and Dr Boyes, Heather is an advocate for blogging as a healing medium.
“I credit them [readers of Dooce.com] with saving my life during my postpartum depression,” she says. “Here in this tiny space of the web is an example of just how awesome and life-altering the Internet can be.”
 
Jane Yee attributes the success of The Girls’ Guide to being open with her audience. “All the blogs that I enjoy are just about people's lives and giving yourself up a little bit to the readers ... making yourself a bit vulnerable.” Although again she alludes to how important it is as a blogger to keep some things private.
“It's a fine line and one that the most successful bloggers know never to cross,” she says. Jane also raises the moral issue of blogging about children.
“If I have kids and start writing about them and posting pictures of them ... well, what happens when they grow up and they never wanted to be all over the Internet?”
As a mother of two, Heather blogs frequently about her children on Dooce.com. Though she admits that recently her eldest daughter (Leta, aged seven) has shown signs of protest.
“Now she actually runs out of the room when I break out a camera,” she writes. In August 2010, Heather confessed on the site that, “For the last several months, if I have mentioned Leta here, I have most likely asked her if I could do so ... I intend to practise this going forward, so I guess maybe I am censored to some extent.”
 
This censorship also applies to other members of Heather's family, namely her Mormon parents. Heather admits that she was naïve when she first started Dooce.com.
“I wrote horrible things about my family and their religion, and when they found what I had done I took everything down and had a little meeting with myself about boundaries.”
 
Coming from the woman who has shared everything from intimate details of her sex life to her time in a mental hospital with millions of readers, this just goes to show that the line between sharing not enough and too much is indeed a fine one.  
 
As both a blogger and psychologist, Dr Boyes has had to master the art of writing about her personal life while remaining professional. “With my blog, I like to test the boundaries of how informal and accessible I can be,” she says. Using personal examples, Dr Boyes demonstrates to readers how they can apply clinical psychology tools to their own lives.
 
Each month she profiles a different '30 day project' on her blog. For example, past projects have included '30 days of trying new things' and '30 days of self-compassion'. Dr Boyes writes daily about what she has done for the project and invites readers to do the same. Keeping this personal yet professional balance has allowed her to create a successful business. “I get almost all my therapy clients from people reading my website,” she says.
 
Makes you wonder about that old diary doesn't it? Perhaps your everyday musings might have lead you to a following of millions and advertising deals so lucrative you could quit your day job ... if only you had published it online. On the other hand you may end up wishing you'd kept some things just for yourself.
 
We now live in a world where on a daily basis we are bombarded with the most intimate parts of people's lives. Births, relationships and even deaths are showcased online for all to share.
 
So before you trade in that diary for a personal blog, just pause. Consider how what you write today will affect your future. If people like Jane Yee and Heather B. Armstrong are anything to go by, there is ultimately one thing that separates the professional blogger from the amateur.
And what’s that? Knowing what to hold back.

Amanda Bidwell
 
Five Random Facts about Blogging
 
1.  The word blog is a contraction of the word “weblog” and has only been around since 1999 (taken from the Origins of Blog and Blogger, American Dialect Society Mailing List Apr 20, 2008).
2.  www.blogpulse.com states that there are estimated to be over 156 million public blogs in existence.
3.  According to Technorati’s State of the blogosphere 2010, just 11% of bloggers claim it as their primary source of income.
5.     The world's oldest blogger is 110-year-old man, Bernando LaPallo. Bernando is a trained chef who shares his tips and recipes for living longer on the site: www.agelesslivemorestore.com.

Amanda Bidwell