I have found myself with an extra load of time so like any responsible adult I am pre-writing a few blog posts. Or like one blog post. Nothing plural about it. This is actually pretty monumental for me considering I am pretty sure I have never returned a single library book on time a day in my life (even though the fine is only 10 cents per day I have racked up a lot of fines). I'm sure my local librarians hate me, but I'm also sure I am one of the few teenagers who come to the library, so it is most certainly a love/hate relationship.
Anyway.
I have a relatively funny store to tell. So the other day my English teacher mentioned that each of us would be individually writing a blog for her class, and we are of course using Blogger to create our blogs. She asked if any of us already had a blog and naturally I pretended to sip my coffee and pretend like the blogging world was some mystical place I had never ventured to, but inwardly I was like "YES YES I LOVE BLOGGER AND I HAVE BEEN WRITING A BLOG FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS I AM SO HAPPY TO GET TO BRING MY LOVE OF BLOGGING INTO AN ACTUAL CLASS." I of course had to create new blog that was connected to my school email, and the blog posts are not nearly as exciting/interesting/whimsical as my personal blog posts, but it has been an overall very fun project.
When we were writing our second or third blog post my friend commented that I was navigating Blogger really well (a lot of kids in our class were very overwhelmed with Blogger, its features, navigation, etc.), and I just slyly smiled like ah yes if only you knew.
All of this has kind of brought back the topic and issue of me having an anonymous blog and keeping it that way. I haven't told anyone about this little place (not even my parents or very closest friends), although I have my suspicions that my parents know about this because I'm pretty sure I have kept the Blogger tab open on our family computer before, but I digress.
When I started this blog, I had envisioned keeping myself secluded by giving away as little personal info as possible, but that's kind of waned in the past years. As my blog is about to celebrate its three year birthday, I realize that I have given away a lot more info that I would have ever imagined I would. Most of this stuff however is very basic such as what state I live in, how old I am, etc. and honestly they are not that important, but I have certainly been reflecting on how my attitude has changed.
There have been a couple of times when I have come very close to making a blog post to formally introduce myself including my real name, close up and frontward facing pictures of me (as all the pictures I have ever put on here of me either don't show my face or my back is facing the camera), and all sorts of other things that I'm sure you all have been wondering about me, but I always stop myself. I decided a long time ago that if/when I end my blogging journey I want my last post to include all these things that I have been keeping secret these past few years, and this decision is one of the few things that have kept me from posting this tell-all beforehand.
Despite all the comfortableness I have acclimated since starting this blog, I'm still extremely paranoid that someone I know will find my blog. I am very self conscious of my writing, my ideas, and my life in general, and the thought of someone I know in real life coming across this place is a daunting and stomach twisting scenario.
I'm curious as to what you all think and feel. When you created your own personal blog, what compelled you to make it either anonymous or not anonymous? Have you told your family/friends about it?
I look forward to reading your answers. Have a fabulous day.
Okay okay okay I'm so glad you touched on this, because believe it or not, I have been going through the exact dilemma for nearly three years now.
ReplyDeleteIn middle school, we were all supposed to create blogs for language arts as a way of studying, but that didn't happen, and then I made a blog for this one assignment in that same class... except I realized I did the assignment extremely wrong.
Because of that one class, along with the YWP NaNoWriMo people I spent my time with, I had created a blog. I haven't revealed much of my identity yet to everyone except that I am Asian, with black hair and brown eyes, and I live in the US. Seriously. And I let everyone guess my age and my grade, though it's kind of easy to distinct that right away.
As for telling people? Well, besides my parents, two of my friend groups know. The first group, which consists of the people I've known since elementary school, just knew because I would always log onto the library computer and they would know. My second group, which is basically those I hang out with in both middle school and high school, just kind of found out.... and I never told them. When they said they knew and I asked for how long, they said, "Um.... two years, give or take a couple of months."
I'm having trouble with this anonymity thing, too, but at least you do it much better. :D
xoxo Morning
It's so good to see someone else who is struggling through the same thing. At times I think it is way easier to be anonymous and other times I just want to shout to the world who I am. Also, I'm pretty sure that in five years from now one of my friends will bring up my blog and about how they had known about it for years, and they just never told me.
DeleteAnyways, glad to hear from you! :)