Blog Ethics
Lately I've been thinking about the blog ethics of relationships. Particularly, if you're dating someone who reads (or could read) your blog, how do you handle it?
1) You could always deem the blog off-limits to the partner. For me, I think I would be sad if my partner couldn't read my blog though. And what if I ever dated someone from the LJ community? Then it would just be weird. Especially since my blog is still public.
2) You could let the partner read the blog, but restrict posts concerning the relationship so the partner couldn't read those ones. I admit I've done that, twice. It gives me an icky feeling though. I don't like the idea that there are thoughts I'd share with people I don't know, but not with my partner, although it's more an issue of timing than it is of trust.
3) You could just not blog about relationship negativities. But that seems to almost defeat the purpose of a personal blog. It also shuts off any chance of feedback from community and friends.
4) This one was actually
rainswolf 's brainstorm. You could come up with a method of flagging posts that might be upsetting to the partner by using a special userpic and a LJ cut. Then it would be up to the partner to determine whether they wanted to know or not. I kind of like this idea. I want my partner to be able to know what I'm thinking, even if it is bad. At the same time, I don't want to be hurtful.
There is also something a little troubling with the general idea of blogging about relationship issues. Now since people for millions of years have vented/sought feedback from friends, co-workers, and probably cavemates, there's nothing that different about it. But something is different. Is it because it's written, a record? Or because it's information shared with a group that is partly or largely unknown? Or is it really exactly the same but just feels different?
1) You could always deem the blog off-limits to the partner. For me, I think I would be sad if my partner couldn't read my blog though. And what if I ever dated someone from the LJ community? Then it would just be weird. Especially since my blog is still public.
2) You could let the partner read the blog, but restrict posts concerning the relationship so the partner couldn't read those ones. I admit I've done that, twice. It gives me an icky feeling though. I don't like the idea that there are thoughts I'd share with people I don't know, but not with my partner, although it's more an issue of timing than it is of trust.
3) You could just not blog about relationship negativities. But that seems to almost defeat the purpose of a personal blog. It also shuts off any chance of feedback from community and friends.
4) This one was actually
rainswolf 's brainstorm. You could come up with a method of flagging posts that might be upsetting to the partner by using a special userpic and a LJ cut. Then it would be up to the partner to determine whether they wanted to know or not. I kind of like this idea. I want my partner to be able to know what I'm thinking, even if it is bad. At the same time, I don't want to be hurtful.
There is also something a little troubling with the general idea of blogging about relationship issues. Now since people for millions of years have vented/sought feedback from friends, co-workers, and probably cavemates, there's nothing that different about it. But something is different. Is it because it's written, a record? Or because it's information shared with a group that is partly or largely unknown? Or is it really exactly the same but just feels different?