Does My Blog Work?
Yesterday, a friend told me that my blog doesn't work.
It was like this: he asked why do I feel the need to be so open about myself online, and I told him that, among other things, it makes it easy for people to get to know me. In particular, it filters the right people out. Someone can read my blog and decide that he doesn't like me, without me even knowing. Very efficient.
"Doesn't work", he said. "When I tried reading your blog, I thought you were unbelievably boring! And you are not. This blog paints a completely wrong picture of you. If that's what you want to achieve with it -- to allow people to get to know the real you -- then it fails."
Just to make sure, I asked him whether his dislike of my blog was because I can't write, or because he disagreed with whatever I was saying. I know that some people find it difficult to separate style and content. (For me it's actually pretty easy -- I often find myself thinking things like "Wow, this guy sure can write! Pity his opinions are so dumb." But my mom is not like that -- a good writer can easily convince her of almost anything.) So I asked him about it -- because I myself understand that I can't write worth a damn. (For example, I know for a fact that I have a sense of humor -- I make people laugh often in conversations -- but unfortunately, this trait is almost completely absent from my writing).
But he insisted it was both -- that he just got a completely different picture from my blog than from me in person.
And I just realized I don't have many people whom I can ask. Not many people who actually know me closely follow my blog (which is, btw., a big sign that my friend was right on target...)
For what it's worth, though -- what do you think? Does my blog paint a truthful picture of me?
It was like this: he asked why do I feel the need to be so open about myself online, and I told him that, among other things, it makes it easy for people to get to know me. In particular, it filters the right people out. Someone can read my blog and decide that he doesn't like me, without me even knowing. Very efficient.
"Doesn't work", he said. "When I tried reading your blog, I thought you were unbelievably boring! And you are not. This blog paints a completely wrong picture of you. If that's what you want to achieve with it -- to allow people to get to know the real you -- then it fails."
Just to make sure, I asked him whether his dislike of my blog was because I can't write, or because he disagreed with whatever I was saying. I know that some people find it difficult to separate style and content. (For me it's actually pretty easy -- I often find myself thinking things like "Wow, this guy sure can write! Pity his opinions are so dumb." But my mom is not like that -- a good writer can easily convince her of almost anything.) So I asked him about it -- because I myself understand that I can't write worth a damn. (For example, I know for a fact that I have a sense of humor -- I make people laugh often in conversations -- but unfortunately, this trait is almost completely absent from my writing).
But he insisted it was both -- that he just got a completely different picture from my blog than from me in person.
And I just realized I don't have many people whom I can ask. Not many people who actually know me closely follow my blog (which is, btw., a big sign that my friend was right on target...)
For what it's worth, though -- what do you think? Does my blog paint a truthful picture of me?