This is the one that is personal.

Posted June 26th, 2010 by Mike Lawson

This post was inspired by a conversation I had recently with my friend Bethany who has a blog called Me With D.  She’s wonderful, and if you are interested in reading a diabetes blog, check her out.

The gist of our conversation was this: where does a blogger draw the line between blog readers and personal friends?  How does one…or I guess is it necessary to keep your two online identities separate?

I’m super connected.  My blog is linked to my Facebook which is linked to my twitter which is linked to my blog…etc, etc.  Some of my Facebook friends I met on twitter, or they are blog readers.

My personal point of view is this: if someone is reading my blog or following me on Twitter, they’re probably doing it because they (a) know me (b) also blog and twitter or (c) enjoy my insipid tales of writing to people in prison or singing songs at inappropriate times.  Whatever the case, I’m pretty confident that there aren’t any scary Internet stalkers out there that are going to hunt me down and carve their initials in my car or anything.

I guess this opinion is parallel to the one I wrote here called This is the one about scary Internet witches that want to kidnap your children and cook them. Ten years ago people feared that the Internet would find a way to intrude on their lives in the same way Ray Bradbury wrote about in Fahrenheit 451…that we would all eventually stop being the viewers and become the viewed.  Which if you think about it, has happened.  All of us broadcast to the world what we’re doing at any given moment.  But the prophetable (did I just make that word up??) words of Bradbury and Huxley never predicted the usefulness of being constantly watched…or at least constantly available to be watched.

It’s easy for us to say that over-sharing our information will lead to bad things.  Protect our privacy to protect ourselves…right?  The only problem with the privacy-is-so-important stuff is that we’re not giving value to mass sharing.  Just a couple of weeks ago, for example, I tweeted that I was going to see a show and had two extra tickets.  And Keesha and her husband, who I had not before met and know solely through blogging, responded and showed up…and the four of us had a lovely evening.

And I could even make the case that the most personal of stories I share here are the ones that get the most comments and affect people the most deeply.  I’ve received more comments and emails about the Diabetes Police video and my coming out story which are both SUPER personal, than any others.  Gay and straight.  Diabetic and non-diabetic.

So to cut to it…yes, I get personal here.  That’s why I do this.  If I had to somehow edit out details, it would almost not be worth doing.  Additionally, it’s too difficult for me to keep up two separate online identities.  Truthfully, it’s hard to squeeze in enough time to update one Facebook,twitter and blog.
So since I’m in the mood for over-sharing, here you go: